League of Exceptionals
by The Threat
Summary: What would happen when you put some contemporary heroes, or anti-heroes of fiction together in one story? Also, this story will resemble the League-formula more closely than my earlier one.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" is created by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill. Apart from the character "Kenneth Tam", not one character used here is mine.

* * *

Cleveland, Ohio, May 7 2008

A small group of three people were inside a bank, where they filled their bags with all the money they could find. They kept at it, until they saw a searchlight outside, and heard a voice through a megaphone.

"Police!" it shouted, "We've got the place surrounded! Seize your criminal activity at once, and come out with your hands above your head!"

"Now we're busted." one of them said.

"Don't be so negative, O'Shea." another one told him.

"He's right." the third one, who had an eye-patch, hissed, "If we leave the way we came, we'd be busted."

Outside, all officers were waiting for people to come out, but no one came.

"Are you sure there's somebody here?" the chief asked one of his subordinates.

"The silent alert came from here, so it has to be." the subordinate answered.

The chief could not understand it, until he spotted lights. He looked at where they came from, but the only lights he saw were either from lamp-posts, therefor immobile, or from the other policemen, whose lights were pointed towards the bank. The only possible place where they may have come from is... and the chief froze at that thought... the sewers. He opened the nearest sewer-lit and and went down. There, he raised his gun and his own flashlight.

"Stop or I'll shoot!" he shouted.

The three of them stopped and turned around. The chief didn't know two of them, but he most certainly recognized the one with the eye-patch.

"Plissken?" he whispered.

As if on command, the one called Plissken raised his own gun and shot the chief.

"What're you doing! They would have heard that!" the one called O'Shea whined.

"Texas, you go that way." Plissken said, "Carjack, you go the other."

"We split up. How's that gonna..."

Before the one called Carjack could finish the question, other policemen went down too. This helped the trio to eventually split up.

The one called Plissken got three policemen hot on his tails. Plissken shot as many bullets as he could, which merely wounded two of them. The third one, however, took a grenade out of his pockets and pulled out the pin.

"This is for our chief, you motherfucker!" he exclaimed as he threw it away.

The grenade exploded right behind Plissken, which caused much of the roof to collapse. There was too much smoke for anyone to see whether Plissken was at all even hit. But this particular man was convinced he was.

Some time later, while the other two were already caught, two paramedics rushed to the place where Plissken was last seen. That was at a time when the smoke had cleared, so everyone could see that he was caught under the roof.

"That's one criminal less." one of them said.

"I don't see anybody there." the other remarked.

"His entire body is probably under all that rubble. Of course you can't see him."

"But what if he's still alive?" this one sounded concerned.

"Nobody survives this." he was assured, "Even if he did, would you want such a wanted criminal to be saved?"

New Jersey, March 14 2010

The headline of that day read "A new encounter with alien life-forms?" along with a picture of a large rectangular object. Along with it was the subtitle: "Or another hoax?" along with a picture of a woman, who according to the next underneath it was crazy enough to believe to have been across the universe talking with aliens. One man, holding this particular newspaper, while waiting in his limousine, heard another car driving by. He put down his paper and got out of his car, along with his briefcase.

The other car, also a limousine, stopped to allow another man to come out.

"Mr. Morris." the one who waited spoke.

"Mr. Tracy." Morris replied.

The two got closer, along with their briefcases. First, Morris raised his own and opened it. Tracy looked through the papers it held. They were blueprints to special machines, which for some reason interested Tracy.

"These were very hard to get, especially from Japan, as they're still quite suspicious of us." Morris told him.

"They'll have no choice but to acknowledge us, once I use these." Tracy replied.

Morris wasn't sure if it was supposed to be ensuring or threatening, that's why he decided not to ask him anything, but instead asked: "You got the money?"

Tracy raised his own briefcase, opened it to show Morris. All Morris did then was scan it with a light, so he could see whether the money is real, which it was. They both closed their briefcases, so they could exchange it. Suddenly, something popped out of nowhere in the corner of their eyes. When they turned to look, they saw a man, who jumped into the air, made a sort of flip and kicked Morris down, so he could quickly nap his briefcase and disappear into the night.

Seattle, Washington, March 20 2010

A young couple were sitting on a bench, enjoying what looked like a warm day for the time of the year.

"So..." the guy started, "... nice day, isn't it?"

The girl looked at him, surprised: "You talk about the weather? You never do that."

"I'm sorry, Tess." he apologized, "I'm trying to make conversation, but all I can come up with is... well, the one thing I'm trying to avoid."

The girl, Tess, smiled: "You mean how I'm doing ever since Kevin died. Ever since I met you, and now that you've taken me here... I say I'm pretty fine, Kenny."

This surprised the guy, Kenny: "You're not angry enough to call me by my full name?"

"Well..." Tess explained, "I think that by now too many people already know you're name's Kenneth Tam, so maybe I shouldn't do that anymore."

Kenny didn't know how he should feel about this, but Tess gave him one assuring kiss, to let him know it's alright: "Cheer up, I was only kidding."

Kenny smiled, as he wrapped his arm around her. He then looked around. He spotted a black bird near them, which got him to think of another subject to talk about: "You know, I once read about this other couple, somewhere in Detroit I think, who met with a gang of mobsters, who brutally slaughtered them. Strangely, one year after that happened, all of these mobsters were found murdered themselves."

This surprised Tess: "Why are you telling me that?"

"I don't know." Kenny answered, "I just see that bird over there, and I think about it."

He sighed as he too didn't understand it. Then he spotted an ice-cream vendor.

"You want some ice-cream?" he asked Tess.

Tess smiled: "I'd love some."

Kenny didn't need to hear anything else, as he then got up to get some.

Tess waited for him to come back. But it was then that someone grabbed her from behind, kept a chloroformed cloth against her mouth and dragged her into a van.

Hearing a disturbance, Kenny turned around. When he saw his girlfriend kidnapped, he got out of the line and ran towards the van. Even though he himself would be too slow to catch the van, he would still be able to read it's license-plate. But just as he did, another car hit him, very hard. People gathered around him, worried about how he's doing, while others called the police and an ambulance. Meanwhile, though nobody noticed, the black bird that Kenny spotted looked at the crowd, then took off.

Idaho, April 19 2010

In an upstairs bedroom, a little ten year old girl heard someone coming into the house, asking the elder people: "Have you seen this girl?"

The girl could only guess that this someone had a picture, which he showed to the elders. Her picture. Nevertheless, she knew she shouldn't stay there anymore. She opened the window, jumped out and like a cat she landed on her feet. Immediately, she ran into the nearest woods she could find. In there, she met with another man, who was somewhere around his fifties, who awaited her, under some of the forrest's dirt. Out of reflex, she used all her skills to take this man down, which apparently went quite smoothly, for a little girl. But the old man himself had quite some experience in fighting himself, so he wasn't easy to take down either. Every time the girl had him pinned down, the man manged to get out of her grip. At one point, he had his arm around her, but she tossed him over her shoulder. While she was distracted in doing that, the man penetrate a needle through her neck's artery, thereby allowing a sedative to run through her veins. Once that was taking effect, the girl could no longer stand on her two feet.

Somewhat exhausted from this fight, the man got up again: "I didn't underestimate you because you're a girl. You shouldn't underestimate me for being old."

The other man, who went inside to ask about this girl, came and asked: "You got her, Mac Lane?"

"I told you someone should be waiting outside, Ovronnaz." he replied.


	2. Chapter 2

Sarjevane, Adriatic Sea, April 20 2010

On this island, there's what one would describe as a Spanish hacienda/convent. It was here, that the man who caught the little girl just the other day, was found, along with other people. One of these people was a doctor, a general practitioner, but he wasn't there for his expertise alone, but also for experience reasons. This man and this doctor were in a conversation with each other.

"I don't know what it is that you or your boss want with this man..." the doctor said.

"I didn't even know I had a boss." the man interrupted, "But I assume you meant my friend, Mr. Winch."

"OK, your friend." the doctor replied, with a slight hint of annoyance, "But what I want to say, every time I tried to help him, he threatened to kill me. He's a very dangerous man."

"I know that, Dr. Strauss." the man replied.

"It's _Struyss_." the doctor corrected him.

As the name, as well as the doctor, were Flemish, the man had some difficulty to get the name right, but he tried either way: "Sorry, Dr. Struyss. But he's here because he's dangerous. And you were here, because you've been in a wheelchair before."

"How do you even know that?" Stryuss asked.

"Only because your boyfriend works for one of Group W's subsidiaries." the man answered, "For more details, you should ask Largo himself. But as I understand it, since you had to go through rehab before, you'd understand our dangerous man better than anyone else."

"OK, I understand, I think." Stryuss told him, "But I'm not sure he's able to... move so much just yet."

"We won't know it until we try." the man replied, "What we're about to ask of him, is one of the reasons we took him in to begin with."

"Ah! Just the man!" they ran across another doctor.

"Dr. Bacon." the man greeted him, "What have you got on our young guest?"

"Well, I don't know where you got your intel from." Bacon answered, "But you were right. Her DNA reminds me a little of that of a feline. But here's something that the files don't mention."

Bacon stretched out his hand, which wore a pink plastic glove. The man noticed the glove, and suddenly remembered he had never seen Bacon not wearing them. For that matter, Bacon never took off his sunglasses either, and his face looked like a mask. What he's hiding exactly, he doesn't know, but he's the best on the field of bio-engineering that they could find, so who cared about what he looked like?

Anyhow, the man took in his hands whatever it was that Bacon gave him. It was a bottle of pills, of which the label said they were Tryptophan.

"And this is...?" the man asked.

"It's Tryptophan." Bacon answered, "It supplements serotonin that her body is supposed to make. It's a little designer's flaw in her system. If she doesn't get any of it, she gets seizures and eventually dies. We can mix it with her food, but she may need some of that on the field."

"Thanks." the man said to Bacon, when he suddenly stopped at a door, asking both doctors: "Are they in here?"

"Yes." Stryuss answered, "But are you sure you want to be in there with them?"

"They're both restrained, right?" the man asked them, after which the doctors nodded, "Then I have nothing to fear."

The man enters the room. The room in question was big enough to be a mess-hall, but had just one table with enough seats for about twenty people. The only lights there were, were from transportable lamps, almost the same type you'd find on a movie-set, only because there's otherwise no electricity anywhere around this building. On one of the seats, there was the little girl, of a seemingly ridiculous amount of chains was used to keep her restrained. On another seat, just opposite the girl, there was the man with the eye-patch that was found in Cleveland two years earlier, who was simply handcuffed. Seeing those two, the man sat down at the head of the table. He put his briefcase on the table, opened it and took out two files. After putting the briefcase on the floor, he opened one file, and read out loud what was in it.

"Reference number X5-452. Barcode number 332960073452, but I've been told you prefer the name "Max". Part of a project called Manticore, Chimera-class specimen, human female with feline abilities, among other things."

"How do you know all that?" the girl, Max, asked.

The man ignored her, opened up another file and read out loud what was in it: "S.D. Robert "Snake" Plissken. Special Forces, two Purple Hearts, youngest man ever to be decorated by the President, rescued another one in 1997, from what was at the time New York Prison. Was even given a life-long sentence in the same prison for robbery and desertion. Got excused from those crimes, but never stopped his criminal activities, from what I gather."

"So you know who we are." the one called Snake hissed, "But you are...?"

The man put down the file and replied: "I have many names, but to make it easier for you, you can call me Thirteen."

As Max is used to having numbers instead of names, she didn't question this, but Snake on the other hand wasn't entirely satisfied: "Thirteen?"

The man, Thirteen, opened his shirt's collar, so he could show them his tattoo on his neck, that had the Roman numeral XIII: "Yes, Thirteen. I take it you've been to busy to follow the news or read books, or else you'd have known who I am."

"Fuck it." Snake sighed.

"Why did you bring us here?" Max finally fired this question, "And where is here?"

"The Mediterranean Sea." Thirteen answered, "But I can't explain why you're here until the other ones are here."

"Other ones?" Snake questioned.

"I am however at liberty to say that if you don't do what I tell you this." Thirteen replied, "Since we know so much about you both, we also know that there are a bunch of people who'd like to get your hands on you."

"So we either do as you tell us, or you'll sell us out." Snake hissed.

"Right now, it doesn't make much of a difference." Max said, in reference to her chains.

"Don't worry." Thirteen assured her, "Once you've heard me out, those things will get off."

Both Snake and Max shrugged, and listened to what Thirteen tells them next: "I want you both to go to Manhattan Island, find a place called Rat Streets, and find a man with chains."

This sounded so weird, both Max and Snake looked at each other, surprised, but Snake was the one to talk: "That's it?"

"For now, yes." Thirteen explained, "He's one of the other ones that need to be here. But we've been having some trouble in both finding and capturing this man, if it is at all a man, but we hoped maybe you two will have more luck."

"Is that why you kept me here for two years?" Snake asked, "So I could be your lapdog?"

"You've been here for two years to recover from the Cleveland incident." Thirteen corrected him, "You'd be dead if it wasn't for us."

"And I'm supposed to thank you for that?" Snake wasn't satisfied.

"We just didn't think that we'd need you so shortly after your recovery, I do admit that." Thirteen added.

"So all we gotta do is look for a man with chains?" Max asked, "You haven't got enough of those?"

Thirteen grinned at hearing her say that: "You remind me of my... I was about to say wife, but I'm still not sure of what she is exactly."

"So you told us what you need us for." Snake brought up, as he held up his cuffed hands.

"Just one more thing." Thirteen quickly said, "Don't think of trying to run or do anything behind our backs. If you do, we'd know."

"Oh really?" Snake didn't sound impressed.

"Noticed how there aren't any cameras in this building?" Thirteen pointed out, "Including where you two have spend your nights? And yet, somehow, one of our doctors know..."

He pointed to Max as he said the following: "... that you tried pull the bars out of the window, three times."

This surprised Max. The idea that she'd try to break bars can be an educated guess, but knowing that she did it three times?

"And you..." he then directed himself towards Snake, "... have tried to figure out how to fake your suicide, so you can escape from here."

Again, this was too detailed to be just a guess. So who is this doctor, and how does he know all these things?

"I see that I got your attention." Thirteen then took a key out of his pocket, with which he unchained Max, "There'll be a helicopter that will take you to the airport, where a plane will be waiting for you, which will take you to Newark Airport. From there you go to Manhattan Island. Once you're there, you're to take this man with you, go back to Newark, take that plane..."

"I got ya." Snake interrupted, as the handcuffs were taken off at last.


	3. Chapter 3

The skies, April 20, 2010

As they were instructed, Snake and Max were in the plane, that was on it's way to Newark. Still, neither one is pleased, either with this forced labor, or the accommodations.

"What is all this?" Max started, as she was flipping through a magazine she found there, "Pulse makes Hannah Montanna show her true colors? Driveshaft is the best selling band of the century? Lizzie in rehab? Who are these people and why would I care what's happening to them? Is this really what everybody reads?"

"Everyone who'd rather not think about their own problem and deal with it, yes." Snake sighed.

"I've had it with this thing." Max said, as she threw the magazine away.

Snake remained silent, but there was something about when the magazine landed somewhere that she noticed, but couldn't quite place. She got up, startled at that.

Snake, who noticed her sudden move, asked her: "What is it?"

"Did you hear that?" Max asked.

"Hear what?" Snake didn't know what she was talking about.

"I don't know." Max replied, "I just threw away the magazine, but before it fell I heard something make a soft moan, as I actually hit someone."

Snake shrugged: "Maybe the plane's alive and you hurt it."

"I'm serious here... Plissken!" Max exclaimed.

Snake turned to her, annoyed: "So am I... what was your number again? X5-something?"

"My name is Max!" Max shouted.

Snake remained calm: "It's Snake."

Max turned away from him: "Can't believe that I'm stuck here with you."

"Yeah, doesn't everybody." Snake snickered.

This was something Max didn't seem to understand: "You're okay with that Thirteen guy high-jacking us and forcing us to find this... chain-man?"

"Not at all." Snake replied, "But I know something you don't."

"And what would that be?" Max asked him, annoyed.

"This plane belongs to Group W." Snake explained.

"So?" Max still didn't understand.

"It's a company owned by a man named Winch, who owns some ten billion dollars, last time I checked it." Snake explained.

"He probably lost it all ever since the Pulse." Max brought to his attention.

"Maybe he lost something." Snake reasoned, "Maybe he's not even the owner anymore, but whoever is calling the shots here can afford to help me recover from my wounds, maintaining that island, this plane,... I'd say he has enough money."

This appeared to be of some interest to Max: "So you're just tagging along and wait for your shot?"

Snake didn't say anything, which usually meant yes.

"And you're not afraid of saying that out loud?" Max still asked.

"Do you really think that Thirteen guy meant it when he said he has his ways of finding out what we say or do?" Snake wondered.

This would surprise anyone else that he'd ask, but not Max: "So you too believe that he was bluffing. That there may be some stupid explanation to why he knew so much about what we do."

"For a little girl, you're quite smart." Snake said.

"I get that a lot." Max replied, as she suddenly started shaking.

Snake saw her shake, quite heavily. He also saw how she tried to take something out of her pockets, but failed to do so. She fell to the floor, at which point Snake ran to her.

"What's happening to you?" he asked her.

While still shaking, Max tried to reach for her pocket. Wondering what in her pocket could possibly be so important she would try to reach for it at this time, Snake got it out. It was an orange bottle with pills. He didn't know what they are or what they're supposed to do, but he guessed she needs it against these seizures she's experiencing. He opened it and gave her one pill. After some time, she stopped shaking. Max looked at Snake, seeing how he just saved her life.

"Look, Snake..." Max started.

Snake put his hand on her mouth, saying: "Do you really want to share your secret with somebody you hardly know?"

Max thought about it. She realized she got a little emotional, just because this man just saved her, but she remembers now that she'd better not mention this to him. Still, she felt the urge to say something at all: "At least that Thirteen guy was kind enough to give me this."

New York City, April 20, 2010

When they left Sarjevane, it was late in the afternoon, but when they got to New York, it wasn't even noon yet. It's a weird sensation to realize, but they both got over it easily. On their way to Manhattan Island, they were to cross a bridge.

"This brings back memories." Snake sighed.

"I never been here." Max remarked, "Is it supposed to look like Rome?"

Snake didn't even need to look at the buildings. He knew only too well about the incident of May last year, the case that's designated as "Cloverfield".

"It's ironic." Snake brought up, "First, bombs destroy almost every major American city, but this city was one of the few that were spared, only to be torn down by a giant monster."

"That was this city?" Max asked him.

"Yes." Snake hissed, "I'm not even sure if we'd find this man we're supposed to look for."

"Neither am I." Max shrugged, "But let's look anyway, so we can say we tried."

Some time after they arrived on the island, and after asking for directions, the two made it in the infamous Rat Streets. But the all they could find were homeless people. And some of them weren't that welcoming towards them either, as they all turned away at the sight of them.

"I'd wish he'd have given me some guns I could use here." Snake sighed, "Maybe that would get them to talk."

Max looked up when he said that, but only said: "I've got enough with my own two hands and my own two feet."

Snake raised his shoulders: "Yeah, sure."

"Hey, you two!" someone shouted at them, "What, you're planning to kill us all?"

"See what the word alone can do?" Max laughed.

That man who spoke got closer, along with some other people, surrounding them, saying: "This place's a sanctuary, man! You can't just come here and do what you want, man!"

Snake shook his head: "Now you listen to me. I don't give a shit about what you think..."

"No, you listen!" that man interrupted, "Either you get outta here now, or we're gonna kick your asses, right here and right now!"

"I'd wish he'd stop screaming like that." Snake remarked.

"That's it! Get him!" he ordered to the others.

Although there were only two of them, they alone were enough to take down this group of five people. Snake had a military training in hand-on-hand combat, which none of these homeless people had, and Max had her special abilities.

Once they were all taken down, Max said: "This wasn't a fair fight. You guys never stood a chance to us."

Snake then picked up that same man that spoke to them earlier, and talked to him: "Now that we have your attention, we just came for one thing here. Where do we find the man with chains?"

The man looked scared at the very mention of that: "You... you don't mean... that black man with red cape? That scary man?"

"A man with a cape?" Snake sounded surprised, "We came here to fetch some guy in a suit?"

"If I may..." somebody cut in, an old man, "... if you're looking for this man, you won't find him at day-time. Wait for the night."

Snake dropped the man: "Just great. We gotta stay up all night, in case this guy might show up?!"

"There's another day of my life wasted." Max whined, "The worst part is that we don't even know what we've been sent here for."

Snake didn't disagree: "Makes it a lot harder to just tag along."

Max sighed as well. It was then that she saw something. She couldn't be too sure, but she saw an Afro-American man at a distance. Anyone who wouldn't have the powers that Max has, wouldn't have noticed that this man's eyes were glowing green. She turned back to Snake.

"I think you might want to hear this." she said, as she guided him out of the man's sight.

The man in question saw how they moved out of the street, then realized he wouldn't be needed here after all. He turned around to walk away, but on his way, he met with the two he just saw.

The Afro-American man was surprised that this happened: "I didn't think you'd have actually seen me."

"Who are you, and why are you watching us?" Snake asked him.

"I answer to nobody." the man said, as he suddenly... changed.

His entire body was suddenly covered in a sort of black suit, with red gloves and boots (or something that's supposed to look like it, so it's not your most conventional ones). His belt bore a human skull, and from it a chain, that appeared to have a life of it's own, was moving. And although this new form wore a mask that covered his entire head, it didn't cover his green-lit eyes. The red cape that the man in the alleys mentioned looked raffled, but it too appeared to have a life of it's own. This... thing, a spawn from hell one might think, so Spawn is more than a fitting way to refer to this thing. Spawn's chains shifted into claws that got their grip on both Snake and Max. In this position, he threw them from one side to the other, before asking them anything.

"What do you want from me?" he finally asked.

"Wish I could tell you." Max answered.

"You can, and you will!" Spawn reacted.

Spawn dropped the two of them and flew into the air.

"Well..." Snake tried to say, "I guess we found our man."

Shortly after that, Spawn returned. This time carrying two machine-guns. As he was about to use his chains again, this time both Max and Snake knew how to dodge his attempts, only so that Max could disarm him, and Snake could grab one of the guns and point it to Spawn. The latter didn't appear to be intimidated. Snake shot Spawn in his leg, but he didn't seem to feel it. That would've surprised Snake under different circumstances, but this wasn't one of them. Spawn allowed his cape to change into an axe, but at that time, Snake decided to point the gun to Spawn's head.

"I don't know what you are..." Snake said, "... but even dead people can't survive a shot in the head. Can you?"

Spawn was undecided as to what to do then, which was the perfect opportunity for Max to pin him down. Snake looked at the weapon he held, and made the following conclusion.

"This weapon is typical military." Snake said, "Only available for those who know where to find it. And you attack first and ask questions later."

"You're a soldier, right?" Max asked.

"I was." Spawn replied, "What's it to you people?"

"Then you should understand this." Snake answered, "We were sent here for something. I don't know what it is, but unless you come with us, we'll never know and he'll never let us go."

"And I should care, because?" Spawn asked.

"Because these people are ready to take people against their will if they have to." Snake told him, "Even if you don't come with us, they'll likely send someone else, and won't stop until they got you."

"Who would be that interested in me?" Spawn wondered.

"Winch." Snake answered.

"Winch? As in Largo Winch?" Spawn appeared to know that name, "Business-people, they're all the same fuckers. Alright, just so he'd get off my back, I'll come with you. But if I don't like it there..."

"I ain't gonna stop you." Snake assured him.

"Me neither." Max added.

"Good!" Spawn exclaimed, as he changed back in his human form.

When he changed back, he fell down. It appeared that although he didn't feel any pain from being shot in his leg, that didn't mean that his leg wasn't wounded.

As the man was crying in agony, Max asked him: "What? You didn't feel any pain before."

"You can't hurt me as a hellspawn." the man explained, "But you can hurt my human body."

"That's gotta be the most pointless thing you've got, that... suit of yours." Snake remarked, "Who are you anyway?"

The man looked up, as he apparently wondered when he was gonna ask this: "Al."


	4. Chapter 4

Sarjevane, April 21, 2010

The three of them were in that same mess-hall, waiting for Thirteen to show himself again. When he entered the hall, Al began talking: "Is that this Thirteen you mentioned?"

Neither Max or Snake spoke, but Thirteen did: "I see you've already given out man the heads up."

"Will you cut the crap. You need us for something. What is it?" Snake replied.

"You're right." Thirteen said, "But Mr. Winch wants something from you too. He wants you to not stab him in the back, as you're planning to."

Neither one of the three looked surprised, until Thirteen added: "I know that you spoke to Max about trying to double-cross us, just because you happen to know that Group W is worth ten billion dollars. I also know that Al over here doesn't trust him, just because he's a business-person."

Neither one of them understood how he knew any of this. Max was the one to get up and attack Snake. The latter was about to do the same, so he was just about prepared enough to have his own grip on Max.

"You told him, didn't you?!" Max asked him.

"How do I know that you're not the one playing here!?" Snake questioned.

"Neither one of you told me anything." Thirteen told them, "If you can't trust me or my friend, you should at least trust each other."

"Are you saying that you're actually friends with that guy Winch?" Al asked him, "You sure know how to pick'em."

Thirteen ignored Al's remark, and waited for Snake and Max to let go of each other. These two looked at each other, then slowly let go. They sat back in their seats, and waited for Thirteen to speak again.

"So now that there are three of you, it's time to bring in the next two." he said.

"Next two?!" Snake exclaimed.

"How many more do we need here?" Max asked him.

"Only these two." Thirteen answered, "Assuming we can find at least one of them."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Snake asked him.

"Let's just say that there's this one... individual we've been tracking lately." Thirteen explained, "We don't know who or what it is exactly, except that it tears people apart like some savage animal. It's left it's body's all through the Canadian area of British Columbia, into Washington State, all through the states, but the trail ends in New Jersey, for some reason."

"Why in New Jersey?" Al asked him.

"We're not sure." Thirteen answered, "However, there's a certain area where authorities don't dare to come. We believe that it's hiding there."

"What area would that be?" Snake asked, though he didn't sound like he was interested.

"Camp Crystal Lake." Thirteen replied, "It's particularly known for this urban legend, surrounding about this kid, who grew up as wild man in this area."

"Something that's able to tear people apart and a wild man." Al laughed, "This sounds like a nice match."

"I'm not so sure." Thirteen remarked, "Either this thing managed to rip this man apart, or the man was vicious enough to kill it. Or their fight was heavy enough for neither to have survived. Either way, if you can find at least one of them, alive, you take them back here. If you find them dead, then we'll have to do it without them."

"And what do we know about these two?" Snake asked, "I don't think we'd wanna go in unprepared, like the last time."

"Of course." Thirteen agreed, as he opened his briefcase, to take out two pictures, both of which were an artist's account of what they look like.

"This here is of the wild man, according to someone who's been there during the summer of '08." Thirteen said, as everyone looked at the picture.

If anybody didn't know any better, they'd say that the artist had overreacted a little in drawing this man, as his entire upper body appeared larger than his legs. The only thing they might want to take seriously at all, is the fact that this man carried a large knife, a machete perhaps, and wore a hockey mask.

"This guy likes hockey." Al remarks, "You sure he ain't the one from Canada?"

Thirteen ignored that remark: "This here is from the thing from Canada. It's how the then mayor of Seattle described it to have looked like."

What they saw on the picture looked like a young woman, with very sharp nails, strangely hairy, and a Asian-esque set of eyes, although given her other features, that Asian look might well be a wolfish look.

"All I know about that one..." Thirteen continued, "... is that the mayor found a large wolf, mortally wounded. He tried to... help it, but when he did, it started to look like that."

"A wolf...?" Max sounded somewhat unwell about this.

"Is that a problem?" Thirteen asked her.

"Er... no, not at all." Max answered.

"Oh, I get it." Snake figured it out, "You're part cat, and here were hunting for a wolf."

"I see." Thirteen said, "Well, can you guarantee that your natural rivalry won't take over?"

"Yes!" was Max's definite answer.

"Good." Thirteen said, after which he got up and picked up a crutch, "Before I forget, Al, here's something to support you for your leg. Regards from Dr. Struyss."

Al took it and used it to get up. Still he wondered: "You don't think I'll be a problem for the team with this leg?"

"From what I've been told, you can work pretty well when you're that hellspawn." Thirteen said.

This got Al more than a little concerned. He changed into Spawn again, by which means he also changed the crutch into a sword, flew up to Thirteen, who didn't appear to feel much threatened, as he used his own military move to dodge every attack from him.

"Who told you all that?" Spawn asked him, "Who told you I was a hellspawn? Who told you what I can or can't do?"

"That... would... be..." Thirteen tried to answer..., "Sebastian."

Spawn stopped attacking him at that point: "Who the fuck is Sebastian?"

Thirteen turned to Max and Snake: "You remember Dr. Bacon. He told me."

"How could he? He wasn't even with us." Snake remarked.

"I know." Thirteen replied, "I don't know how he does it either."

"Bacon's first name's Sebastian?" Max thought that was funny.

"Which reminds me, I haven't seen him since yesterday." Thirteen mumbled, "I wonder where he is."

Snake sighed: "I'm not leaving before I know where he is."

"You do that." Thirteen said, "But then we'd tell everyone where to find you."

"Not if I get outta here." Snake reasoned.

"And then what?" Thirteen asked him, "You can only hide somewhere in Europe, where the Pulse didn't take effect, so it's easier for us to track you. If the authorities catch you, they'll send you to L.A. this time. And yes, Max, he also knows who to contact when you turn against us."

"So you ain't got nothing on me?!" Spawn remarked.

"Now that we know what you are, we can track you down as well." Thirteen answered, "So we can still make your life hell."

"I'm already in hell." Spawn reasoned.

"So last thing you need is people bothering you, right?" Thirteen questioned.

All three of them felt uncomfortable with this. But they all knew that they had no choice.

Somewhat cynical, Max said: "Then by all means, let's go to New Jersey."


	5. Chapter 5

Crystal Lake, New Jersey, April 21, 2010

Although against their wishes, the three made it into the woods that surround the area known as Camp Crystal Lake. They've been walking around for over an hour, and the moon was just about high enough in the skies, so even those of them who couldn't see in the dark (something which Max could), could see just about enough.

"This is weird." Max remarked, "Do you hear this too?"

"Hear what?" Snake asked.

"I don't know." Max explained, "I keep hearing something snapping branches, but I'm not seeing anything."

"You don't think that our target is now targeting us?" Al asked her.

"Like I said, I do..." Max stopped talking at that point, as she saw something else, "There! There's the campsite."

"I don't think either one of our targets would be stupid enough to hide there." Snake said.

"If anything, it would be more of a trap for us than for them." Al agreed.

Max shrugged: "Whether we find them, or they find us, we should be glad if we see even one of them."

She ran to the site, and the two men didn't see any other option but to follow her. Although, Al already went up ahead, while Snake readied his gun: "Luckily that Thirteen gave me one of these at least, this time."

That's when he followed the other two. But just as he was about to pass a tree, somebody came from behind it. It was a man, about two heads larger than Snake and wearing a hockey mask. Snake immediately did the first thing that came to mind, and used his gun to beat the masked man. But the man was too strong to even feel the slightest bit of pain from this.

This disturbance didn't go unnoticed by either Max or Al. They turned around, only to see Snake in battle with one of their targets.

"At least we know he's still alive." Al mumbled, as he quickly changed into Spawn, to charge the man. But just as he was about to do anything, something fell out of the air and on top of him. Max was quick to turn to Spawn, only to see something that appeared as a human female, if it weren't for all the hair and it's wolf-like behaviour. With Spawn down, the two girls looked at each other. With their basic instincts telling them they are rivals, they engaged into a battle of their own.

Meanwhile, Snake was fighting a losing battle with the masked man. The latter managed to punch Snake's gun out of his hands, after which he punched him down. Once he had done that, he saw how Spawn had a sword at the ready to attack the wolf-woman. In order to help her, the man took out his machete and threw it at Spawn. It got him in his shoulder, which also pinned him to the nearest wall. Even though Spawn is strong enough to get out of this, he was still taken by surprise. This lasted long enough for him to see how the woman pinned Max down. With this, the masked man started towards them. But then he heard a click, which came from behind him.

"We're here to take you with us alive." Snake hissed, "But they are satisfied if only one of you is alive. Which one of you should I kill?"

The man and the woman looked at each other, somewhat worried. The masked man looked down, while the wolf-woman got off of Max.

This surprised Spawn: "You must be joking! These two let each other live because they care about each other?"

"Shut the fuck up!" the woman shouted to him.

This surprised all of them, but Max was the one to talk: "You can talk?"

"Yeah, and you can see in the dark? What the fuck are you?" the woman asked her.

Spawn had taken the machete out of his shoulder just then: "Damn, this woman swears a lot more than I do."

"Excuse me, I have a name!" the woman said, "It's Ginger."

"Nice to meet you." Snake said, with his usual sarcastic tone, "And you are?"

He directed himself to the masked man, but he didn't say anything.

"Well?" Snake insisted.

The man turned around angrily and punched Snake in his still-functioning eye. This was an opening in which the woman, Ginger, pushed Max away, while the masked man picked Snake up and threw him to Spawn, who was taken down like a bowling pin. The two of them came together to look at the three they had just taken down.

"Now..." Ginger growled, "Give me one good reason why Jase and I have to go with the four of you."

"Jase? Is that this Golem's na..." Spawn started, but realized something else, "Wait, the four of us?"

"Who taught you to count?" Max wondered, "There are only three of us."

Ginger snickered: "No. There's three of you, and there's one of this!"

She swayed her hand, as though thinking she's hitting something. Next thing everyone else knows is that they hear a sort of scream and they saw how one wall of a cabin suddenly splintered, as though hit with some kind of invisible force. Not to mention a panting voice that said: "You... you can see me?"

Neither Ginger or the masked man appear too surprised about this, but the other three were. Snake got up, went to the wall that splintered, but then stepped his foot on something.

"Ouch! Watch where you're walking!" somebody cried.

"There's something here?" Snake questioned.

"Wait a minute, that voice..." Max realized.

"I knew I smelled something." Ginger said, "And Jase kept pointing this out to me that something's leaving a trail, but he can't see what it is."

"An invisible man?" Spawn was just as surprised as everyone else.

"My ex-colleagues would say a hollow man, but yes." the invisible man replied.

"Dr. Bacon? Is that you?" Max asked.

Now it became clear to Snake: "So that's how you were spying on us the whole time."

"So your face never looked like a mask." Max realized, "It just was a mask."

"Alright, I better level with y'all." Bacon said, "My name's not Bacon. It's Caine."

"Caine. As in Sebastian Caine?" Spawn asked him.

"You know him?" Snake asked.

"Yeah." Spawn answered, "But from what I read, he's supposed to be dead. How did you survive that fire?"

"It wasn't easy." Bacon, or rather Caine, replied.

"That's very interesting and everything." Ginger interrupted, "But why won't all of you just leave us alone?"

"Believe me, we'd love to." Snake told her, "But we can't. Either we return with one or both of you, or we'll be prisoners for the rest of our lives."

"And we should care because...?" Ginger asked.

"You've seen who we are." Spawn answered her, "If they, who keep us, would go so far to collect us, who knows how far they'd go just to get you two."

"Remember..." Max started, sounding unusually menacing, "... we only need one of you alive."

The masked man turns to Ginger, he points to her, then down, so to say that he wants her to stay put.

"No, Jase, I can't let you go alone." Ginger said, "After everything you've been through, do you really need to face this by yourself?"

"This..." Max started, "... is... a disturbing sight."

"We'll both come with you." Ginger said, "But I must warn you..."

"Never mind, I know what you're gonna say." Snake interrupted her, then turns back to where he thinks Caine is, "Come on, 'hollow man'."

Snake reached to pick Caine up, but he couldn't feel him: "Where did he go!?"

"Here he is!" Spawn answered, as he appeared to have something in his grip that's struggling to let go, that kept begging to let go.

"You can see him?" Snake wondered.

"Now that I know I should look for an invisible man, yes." Spawn replied.

Snake then shrugged: "Alright. Let's go back to Thirteen's island. Come on Jase, Gin..."

The masked man grabbed Snake and threw him away. Before anyone, including the masked man, said or did anything else, Ginger told them: "Only I get to call him Jase. His name's Jason. You got it fucking memorized!?"

Leaving it at that, they all left the campgrounds, on their way to return to the aforementioned island.


	6. Chapter 6

Paris, France, 00:08, April 22, 2010

In "La Ratatouille", a man was awaiting somebody. At fist glance, he would look like any other drunk, save for the fact that he wasn't even drunk, but nobody would expect him to be that important. That somebody that the man was awaiting, entered the bar/restaurant and immediately sat with this man. It was Thirteen, who entered.

"Are you sure you thoroughly investigated everybody?" Thirteen asked him.

"And a good night to you too." the man said.

Thirteen sighed: "Largo, please. I only just heard that Dr. Bacon's real name is Caine. He's..."

"Looks like I was right from the start, then." Largo interrupted.

"I'm sorry?" Thirteen didn't understand.

"Yes, I had done a thorough investigation, Jason." Largo explained, while using Thirteen's proper name, "I found out about a man that called himself Bacon, who appeared to be an expert in bio-engineering. But the strange part is that I couldn't find anything about his past. I could, however, find somebody with the same first name, who apparently died, just when this Bacon showed up. It wasn't that hard to put two and two together."

"Then you also knew that Ba... Caine somehow made himself invisible?" Thirteen asked him.

This was new to Largo: "He did? You must be joking."

"We're in a city that's been torched down by dragons a few months ago, and you think I'm joking about something like this?" Thirteen questioned.

Largo didn't need to think about this: "It does sound hard to believe. Then again, when I read that England sometimes puts together some secret task-forces for special operations, it was mentioned that sometimes an invisible man joined them as well. I thought they were joking, but hearing you..."

"Anyway, now I know how he managed to spy on everybody." Thirteen told him.

"Do you think that this would become a problem?" Largo wondered.

"No." Thirteen answered, "It looks like the only thing keeping them on the island is their curiosity."

Largo smiled: "Great."

"So when can I expect to hear from your contact from the FBI?" Thirteen asked him.

"He should be on his way here." Largo told him.

"Are you sure this guy can be trusted, though?" Thirteen still wasn't too sure, "I mean, I promised I won't sell them out, and then I allow a federal agent to come to the island."

"An agent who doesn't always trust the agency he works for." Largo assured him, "The only thing you'd have to fear is if his partner would find him out. The man in question was always a believer, but his partner was always a sceptic, so if she finds out anything about what our man does."

"That's assuring." Thirteen replied, "It's hard enough for me to lie to Jones, how would it be any different with this man?"

"Only that he hasn't got... whatever it is that you have with Jones." Largo sounded cynical.

"Lucky for him." Thirteen sank in his chair, "Oh well, let's not think about this while the night is still young. Is the restaurant still open?"

"Ask him." Largo pointed to a rat that was at the ceiling.

Sarjevane, 01:34, April 22, 2010

Everyone who was in New Jersey only a few hours earlier, apart from Caine, was in the mess-hall. Knowing that the aforementioned could be walking around without any of them noticing, none of them felt too comfortable without the presence of somebody who could see him. Still, despite having that fear in common, friendship was a hard thing to find. All of them were in the hall, but nobody felt like talking. Jason was staring out the window, while Ginger sat next to him. Al couldn't move around to much, so most of his exercise was in scratching the part of the body, his shoulder and his leg, where he was hurt. Max was having another one of her seizure-attacks, so she wouldn't say or do much even if she wanted to. Snake was the most active, as all he did was walking to and fro.

"Will you fucking stop moving around?!" Ginger started, "You're making me nervous!"

"Good." Snake bit back, "Now I'm not the only one annoyed."

"Yeah well, if you didn't threaten to kill us..." Ginger reasoned.

"Hey! If it were up to me, I would have never met any of you." Snake told her, "I did some things back there that I'd never have done, I..."

"Oh right, and I'm supposed to believe that." Ginger sounded dry when she said that.

"I don't care whether you believe me." Snake hissed.

"But you both make excellent points." Al tried to bring peace in this room, "I mean look at us. Where we are now, who or what we are,... whatever these people need us for, it must be pretty damn fucking important."

At this point, Jason turned around to face everyone.

"No shit." Ginger agreed.

"Whatever it is, it had better been worth my leg and shoulder." Al added.

Snake suddenly rubbed his neck, somewhat annoyed and/or nervous.

"What's the matter with you?" Max asked him, as her seizures were stopping at that time.

Snake stopped rubbing his neck: "I keep thinking back about New York."

"You don't think they need us to fight that Clover-thing, do you?" Max asked him.

"Clover?" Al asked.

"No." Snake replied, "I was sent on a rescue-mission. But they had to be sure I would do as they tell me, so they implanted these things in my neck that would kill me."

"So this ain't the first time you're somewhere against your will?" Al rhetorically asked.

"Don't ever tell that to the people from Manticore." Max told him, "You wouldn't want to give them any ideas."

"What the fuck is Manticore?" Ginger asked.

Snake sighed: "Have fun explaining that to her. I'm outta here."

"Where are you going?" Ginger asked him.

"I don't need to tell you." Snake replied, as he left the hall.

Just outside the hall, he stared out into the open. From where he stood, he could see the moon shining in the lake on the island. Not that he's the type of person who's easily impressed by such things, as all he wants is to be alone with his thoughts.

"Not much to your likings. Is it?" a voice said.

Snake turned to look. He saw a young man, wearing a long black trench-coat, but he didn't recognize him: "And who are you supposed to be?"

"For as far as you'd care, nobody." the young man replied, "All you need to know is that while our goals may differ, our roads will end at the same spot."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Snake asked him.

"Snake?" Max popped her head out just then, "Are you alright?"

Snake turned to look at her: "What do you want?!"

"Who are you talking to?" Max asked him.

"This guy..." Snake pointed to where the young man stood, but he was gone.

"What guy?" Max asked him.

Snake quickly looked around. There's nobody he knows of that could move around that quickly or that silently. Who was this young man he met and how did he do what he just did?

"There was somebody here." Snake insisted, "Said something about... I couldn't make much sense of what he said, but he was here."

"If he was, I would've seen him." Max assured him.

"And I would've smelled him." Ginger sounded from inside the hall.

"That's reassuring." Snake sighed, "I'm losing my mind here."


	7. Chapter 7

The next morning, shortly after the sun rose over the skies, the five of them were still waiting in the mess-hall, when Thirteen finally arrived, carrying what looked like projector. While he entered the hall, somebody outside was closing the windows' shutters, so it would turn dark in the hall.

"What? You don't want us to see how the night messed you up?" Ginger sounded cynical.

Thirteen shrugged: "Can I hereby assume you don't want to know why you're here, Miss Fitzgerald?"

Hearing him call her last name, got Ginger a little surprised. Snake only just managed to say, before the shutters had blocked all the light into the room: "I told you he knows all about us."

"How, that's another story." Thirteen said, as he turned on his flashlight, so he could see where he should put down the projector, and to which wall he should point it, so he could show what he wants to show them. Once that was done, he switches it on. First he showed a few pictures, some of which were from a satellite, while others were done by people. In all cases, they were pictures of... giants, would seem to be the best way to describe them. The first few showed robots, that appeared to have some features, that made them resemble cars, planes or other vehicles a lot more than anything else. Other pictures showed other robots, that either appeared to resemble a bunch of animals or dinosaurs. More recent ones would show a robot that has an old red car as a head. While these pictures were being shown, Thirteen spoke.

"As you can see, during the past few decades, we've been plagued by many... well, giant robots." he explained, "Whether it be in the States, or even in Europe..."

At that point, pictures were shown that were taken in Paris, as everybody recognized the Eiffel Tower, where there had been a giant robot as well. Not to mention England, where two distinct robots appeared.

"Yet, there's no other place in the world where these things appear as often as they did, or still do, in Japan." Thirteen added.

What pictures he showed then were, if possible, even weirder than the earlier ones. Here, it was shown how many things (animals, bugs, vehicles, vehicles resembling animals, dinosaurs, magical and/or mythical beings, buildings, to name a few) combined into robots, fighting even stranger monsters, sometimes even heading into space to continue their fight,... everything one even can't imagine, could happen in Japan.

"Coulda used some of those things when the VLA attacked." Al remarked, "Or that lizard."

"You mean Zilla?" Snake asked him.

"VLA?" Max didn't know this acronym.

Ginger snickered: "Americans. They think they're so high and mighty, but when it comes to it, they need somebody else's help."

"Anyway..." Thirteen interrupted, "All the robots that appeared on American soil were of unknown origins, therefor we have no idea as to how these things work. However, as you can also see, the Japanese have mastered the making of giant robots long ago."

"Your point?" Snake wondered.

"One of Group W's clients, a Mr Tracy..." Thirteen explained, "... he wanted to gain access to the technologies."

"What for?" Max asked, "He wants to destroy the world himself?"

"Tracy is a respected astronaut." Thirteen told her, "If he needs the technology, I doubt it would be for that."

"Then what's the problem?" Snake still didn't have it figured out.

"When one of the Group's employers was to make the transaction, the technologies for Tracy's money, they were attacked." Thirteen said, "The assailant, however, took the blueprints to the technologies."

"And now you want us to stop this one man." Ginger laughed.

"This is serious, Ginger." Thirteen told her.

"I'm sorry." Al laughed, "But I think she's right. I mean, even all the right stuff and enough people, it would still take almost a year before even one such robot is made."

"Not to mention getting the materials or all the right people." Snake figured, "Too many people would notice."

"Believe me, Largo and I felt the same way." Thirteen told them, "But then this happened."

The following pictures were newspaper clippings. These mention the kidnapping of a young woman, and at the same scene a man was killed in a traffic accident.

"Meet Tess Doerner." Thirteen said, "One of the 4400."

"The 4400?" Snake asked, "You must be joking."

"I'd wish." Thirteen replied.

"The 4400 what?" Ginger asked.

"The 4400 have been a subject of controversy in the past decade." Thirteen said.

"Long story short, they're people who disappeared, only to reappear again, but with special powers." Al added.

"You remember that man who helped you when you were in Seattle?" Thirteen asked Ginger, "He's one of them."

Ginger didn't remember much of the time that she was a complete wolf. But whatever few she did remember, was that after she healed from the stab-wound in her belly, which quite nearly killed her, it had left a mark on her. She may have survived, but she lost some blood in the process, not to mention that it sometimes caused pain depending on how she moved. This made her quite an easy target for others to chase her and kill her. It worked, until someone, as Ginger saw it, laid his hands on her and not only took away the pain, but also partly cured her from her illness that got her to look like a wolf. Partly, as the man who helped her, who appeared quite young, mind you, apparently didn't expect that the wolf would start to look human at some point, so he screamed and backed away. Ginger, who didn't know what to think of this guy, nor how to react without causing too much attention, ran away and never looked back.

"Every generation has it's own people." Snake hissed, "The superheroes in the Thirties, the mutants in the Sixties, the supers in the Eighties, the 4400 in the Noughties,... now there's the transgenics like Max. What's next? Regular people who can...?"

"Can I continue?" Thirteen interrupted, "As I was saying, that man had the ability to heal, Tess over here..."

There was one clipping that had a more clear picture of Tess Doerner, which Thirteen made appear next.

"She has the ability to make people do what she wants them to." Thirteen continued, "She once drove an entire asylum to build a tower, with some plans that were imprinted in her head. Now that she's kidnapped, we suspect that she would be used to make people come and built the giant robot, to the extend that these same people will not only shut up about it, so nobody would notice, but also she would gather enough people to have this finished within a matter of weeks."

"And if she refuses?" Max asked her, "Give her one good reason why she'd cooperate."

"How about this?" Thirteen went a few pictures back to show the picture of the man who died in the accident.

When Snake saw him, he immediately asked: "Who's that?"

"This is Kenneth Tam." Thirteen answered, "Tess' boyfriend. Likely he saw the kidnapping, tried to save her, but... well, as you can see, he didn't make it."

"Are you sure about that?" Snake asked him.

"Yes." Thirteen replied, "Why? Do you know him?"

Know him wouldn't be the best way to describe it. The night before, Snake went outside the hall and met with a young man in a trench-coat. Seeing the picture of Kenneth Tam, Snake was sure that it was the same guy. If so, then how is that even possible? If he's dead, then how could Snake have met him just the other night? Unless... Snake himself is assumed to be dead to the world, Caine is as well, as is Al, and from what he has heard about both Ginger and Jason, so are they. Could this guy be just another one of them?

"Is there something you're not telling us?" Thirteen suddenly asked Snake.

Snake looked at Thirteen, and decided to be his same old careless self: "Something like 'why am I listening to you'?"

Thirteen didn't reply to this, instead he continued: "So anyway, Tess was a paranoid schizophrenic when she disappeared, her last boyfriend died in another horrible accident. I'm sure that whoever has kidnapped her would use the death of this boyfriend to get her to cooperate."

"And you need us here, because...?" Ginger asked.

"Because none of you are, as you yourself have noticed, the usual bunch." Thirteen answered, "We don't know who or what our opponent is, or who else is working with him. But all five of you special in your own ways, which makes you..."

"Yeah, yeah, I get the point." Al interrupted, "So where are we supposed to go?"

Thirteen had no answer at the ready for this, so he tried to tell them, cautiously: "Well, to be perfectly honest with you..."

That's when somebody knocked on the door. Thirteen almost sighed of relief, before he went to the door to answer.


	8. Chapter 8

Thirteen left the hall, to meet with a man without a head. He looked like clothes, hanging in the air, but not a man inside it wearing them. It didn't take long before he realized who it was.

"Caine?" Thirteen questioned.

"Yeah." Caine replied.

"Why aren't you coming in? Why staying out here?" Thirteen didn't understand.

"So they'd lock me up in a cupboard? Like they locked me in that jet when getting back here?" Caine reasoned, "I'm sorry, but no. Now that they know who and what I am, I don't feel safe around them, invisible or not."

Thirteen sighed: "Suit yourself. But you didn't come here to tell me that, did you?"

"No." Caine answered, "Somebody came here, claims to be a fed."

"So Largo's contact has finally arrived." Thirteen sounded happy, "Hopefully he has some good news for these guys."

Thirteen couldn't be sure, but he noticed some kind of change in Caine's clothes, specifically around the neck, almost as though some part of his body moved, but obviously nobody watching would have any idea of what Caine just did. Thirteen decided to ignore it and headed straight for the docks.

At the docks, there was just one small boat. Getting off were it's captain and a young woman. Seeing her there surprised Thirteen, but he's sure there'd be some explanation to this.

The young woman saw Thirteen and immediately took something out of her pocket to show him: "Are you Thirteen? I'm Agent Mars, FBI."

This surprised Thirteen even more: "A... young girl?"

Mars puts her I.D., which she just showed, back in her pocket, while saying: "Got a problem with that?"

"No, it's just..." Thirteen explained, "... Mr. Winch told me I should expect a 'he'."

"Ah yes, of course." Mars finally understood, "Well, Agent Mulder couldn't make it, so he sent me instead. Thought this could be a little warm-up before I start doing official work."

"And this... Mulder, he trusts you?" Thirteen still wondered.

"Truth be it, I haven't figured that out myself either." Mars answered.

Thirteen sighed: "There was a time that I would handle all the big problems myself."

"What was that?" Mars asked.

"Never mind." Thirteen shook his head, "Come with me."

Thirteen lead her to the mess-hall, where the five were waiting for them. Just before they entered, Mars thought of asking: "So, I understand you've put an elite task-force together to handle this little situation."

Thirteen didn't open the door before replying: "I've put A task-force together."

All he did was open the door, so Mars could enter. As she entered, Thirteen opened the shutters, so more light would be let into the room. Once that was done, he too entered the room, just in time to see the look on Mars' face when she saw the five.

"Is this your elite task-force?" Mars asked.

"I never said it was elite. You did." Thirteen replied.

"Yeah, but..." Mars wasn't finished yet, "One wanted criminal? One little girl? One crippled man?"

Respectively, she was referring to Snake, Max and Al. But when she saw Jason, she wasn't sure what to say.

"I'm not sure who you are..." was all she could say, which caused Jason to get up in anger.

"Easy, Jason." Thirteen said.

"Jason? As in Voorhees?" Mars asked, rhetorically, "That makes one well-known mass-murderer. And you...?"

She was referring to Ginger when she said: "I'm not even going to begin guessing who or what you are."

"Thank you for not calling me black at least." Al spoke, cynically.

"Believe me, Mars." Thirteen assured her, "I'd much rather have the Justice League, Justice Society, The Avengers, The X-Men,... hell, I'd even prefer to have the Incredibles here. But all of these people are either too busy, retired, MIA, or dead. So I'm sorry, but they'll have to do, like it or not."

"Even if we don't like it, but you don't give a shit." Snake hissed.

"Amen to that." Al agreed.

"What does Amen even mean?" Max asked, "What about Awomen?"

"So we have to work with people who don't even want to work with us?" Mars wondered, "This is just great."

"Wait a fucking minute?" Ginger just found an opening to say something, "Why are we even here when you prefer others?"

Everyone started to argue like this for a while. Safe for Jason, as he was the only one present there that doesn't talk. Nobody appeared to notice just how heavy he started shaking. At some point, he had had enough of their arguments. He slams his fists on the table in front of him, causing it break apart, subsequently even destroying the projector that Thirteen had set upon it. A combination of all these events is what instantly stopped the argument. This sudden silence saw to it that Jason's breathing only sounded louder, helping everyone realize... something.

"Largo won't be happy to hear this." Thirteen whined.

"Easy now, Jase." Ginger told him.

"And I thought I could break a sugar lump doin' that." Max remarked.

"More wood for fire." Al laughed.

"He's right, I tell ya." Snake said, "We got here to do something important, so we should get to it."

"So, what did Mulder want to show us?" Thirteen asked Mars.

Seeing as there wasn't a table anymore, Mars had to give some of the documents she held to the five of them. Most of the documents were sketches to what looked like a rubix-cube.

"A few years back, some twisted mind decided to build a giant cube, somewhere in Ontario, where he'd leave people behind, so they'd participate in his twisted games. Each room inside the cube has booby-traps, making it almost impossible to escape."

"Sounds a lot like that guy Jigsaw I heard so much about." Max remarked.

"Except that this was before Jigsaw even did anything." Mars told her.

Snake noticed the name that was signed on one of these sketches: "Scoffield? Like the Fox River Eight? That Scoffield?"

"Even if so, he probably didn't know what he was working on." Mars answered.

"Look..." Ginger interrupted, "... I may have been living in the woods for so long, or not even know much about military thinking, but what does this have to do with anything?"

"The men behind it have been arrested, and the cube hasn't been used ever since." Mars answered, "But lately, something in that same area has been drawing a lot of power. Not to mention that somebody was seen running in and out of it."

Mars then showed a picture to everyone, including Thirteen, who appeared to recognize it: "It looks like that man that Morris described."

"So whoever wants to build a giant robot is hiding in this... cube?" Snake asked.

"Why not?" Max realized, "A building with booby-traps, nobody would dare to get inside looking for a criminal."

"Nobody with your capacities, no." Thirteen said, "It looks like we were right to bring you together."

"Their capacities?" Mars still had a hard time believing this.

"Something I don't quite get..." Al remarked, "Why are we in the Adriatic Sea, if we have to be in North-America the whole time?"

"Only because officially this island does not even exist." Thirteen replied, "Therefor, it's difficult to find by the enemy."

"Who or whatever it may be." Ginger sighed.

"So after we're all done complaining..." Thirteen could finally say this, "... you should all be getting ready to leave for Ontario."


	9. Chapter 9

The skies

As said, the five were in the airplane, on their way to the Cube. Not much was being said, but they all felt the same. Especially since Thirteen himself mentioned that they were here with or against their or even Thirteen's wishes. None of them truly knew how they should feel about this, therefor they didn't have much to say.

At best, Max thought it'd be usefull if she looked through the Cube's schematics, so to have a better understanding of what they were up against. But since her abilities allow her not only to memorize everything she reads, it also allows her to read faster. So once she was finished reading about the Cube, she looked through some of the books that were left in the plane. Apparently, her whining about the magazines were heard, as somebody left some more interesting books there to read. Among those books was one novel called "The XIII Mystery", which apparently revolved around their own... recruit, for a lack of better terms. Reading it, got her to know a few details about Thirteen, which altogether, even without the graphic novel called "The Kelly Brian Story" was more than she, or anyone else with her, would like to know.

Snake thought it necessary to go through their arsenal. He made sure their fire-arms were clean and loaded, as that would be something even a trained soldier would neglect. But among the arsenal, he found something very peculiar. There was a box with pills, that was labelled "Orofar". Why would anyone send them pills? Expect them to get some kind of disease? He looked at a note that was with it.

"Take these pills and nothing can detect you." it read, "Whether it be motion-, heat- or sound-detectors, they won't see you."

Snake grinned, but said nothing. He didn't believe it would work, but he took one pill, as a joke. He was sure that it wouldn't be a tranquilizer, because if that were the case, it would make the group useless if they took it. But if it is, all the more reason that he should be the only one taking one, so the rest is warned.

Meanwhile, Al was just looking outside the window. He knew that he could fly all by himself, therefor he didn't need this plane to transport himself. Given his situation, being stuck with these people, he felt a little like a prisoner. Even more so as this plane is airtight, which was a thought that didn't make him much, if any happier.

Jason, being who and/or what he is, which nobody really knows, including himself, never slept. But he knew that other people do need to sleep. Though Jason has little to no knowledge or understanding about how the world spins (literally), he doesn't know how he could possibly move from a place where the sun shines, to a place where it doesn't, and back again. In any case, he did realize that a lot of time has passed since he left his home, which was enough to make Ginger tired. So he understood why she was asleep, but couldn't quite understand why no one else was. That was always his problem with people, he never really did understand them. A mutual feeling, one might say, as that is even why he's wearing his hockey mask. It is that which made Ginger so different from everyone else, as she didn't behave as he's seen other people behave. She, in her own way, was different from everyone, just as he is. Because of it, he hesitated to kill her the first time he saw her, and after some time, he decided to never kill her, or in any shape or form allow anything to harm her. She understood that, so she vowed to do the same for him. Bearing all this in mind, seeing her asleep made Jason realize just how vulnerable she was at the time, which made him all the more jumpy when somebody at last decided to talk.

"This is really interesting." Max said out loud, which got everyone's attention, "This book here talks about our friend Thirteen. Looks like he's had quite a history with two American presidents. Not to mention that there's been this whole ordeal with the Conspiracy of the XX, of which he pretended to be the number XIII."

Snake grinned: "Does it also say his real name?"

"Alan Smith, Jake Shelton, Jason Fly, Jason Mac Lane, Kelly Brian,..." Max recited, "Take your pick."

"Never mind." Snake replied, "I'll just stick with 'Thirteen'."

"How does that help us?" Al asked her, "If somebody left this here, then it would mean that Thirteen is not afraid of us finding out about him."

"Or somebody put this here without Thirteen knowing it." Max reasoned, "In any case, I haven't found anything which we can use against him yet, but I'm sure something will come up."

"At least, it's fair now." Snake hissed, "He knows so much about us, now we know so much about him."

"For now, I can live with that." Al replied.

"Wrong, you don't know anything." Max corrected them.

"But enough for all five of us together." Snake reasoned.

"Careful, don't start arguing." Al warned everyone, while pointing to Jason, who was about ready to get angry.

Remembering what he did last time there was an argument, who knows what'll happen if he gets angry while in a flying plane. A thought which nobody would like to think of.

"So..." Al decided to start about something a bit more important at the moment, "... how do we go about this Cube?"

"Well..." Max answered, "... as it looks, there are 17,577 rooms. But not all of them are booby-trapped."

"And you know which ones they are?" Snake asked.

"Yes. And no." Max replied, "The Cube keeps shifting every so often. These schematics only show where the rooms are in their original position, but I have no way of knowing where they are now."

"This is helpful." Al sighed.

"So we'd best cut off the power before going in." Snake suggested.

"We can't." Max told him, "If we do that, we'd warn our man of our arrival, and he'd try to escape. And even if it takes him days to get out of the Cube, the chances of us finding him before that happens are next to non-existent."

"So we keep the power running and keep him at his advantage." Al sighed, "This is great."

"Will you guys keep it down..." Ginger mumbled, "... I'm trying to sleep here."


	10. Chapter 10

The Cube, Ontario

In the area, it's midday when they arrived at the infamous Cube. The entrance of it was easy to find, but entering it was another story. The entrance in question was a small door, that lead into a cube-formed room, where the walls were green. Ginger was eager to jump into the room, but both Max and Jason tried to stop her.

"Wait!" Max exclaimed.

"For what?!" Ginger was annoyed.

That's when the room moved away, only to be replaced by another room, that had orange walls.

"That..." Max replied, "For one. It could be booby-trapped."

"What kind of traps are we talking about?" Al asked her.

"Gas, spikes, acid,..." Max started.

"Forget I asked." Al interrupted, as he changed into Spawn again, "Lemme check this room."

Spawn went inside the room, using his chains to keep everyone else from stopping him. Once inside, he heard a sound. He wasn't sure of what it was, but he could swear that he heard and/or felt something coming towards him, which he couldn't see. Out of reflex, he raised his arms to shield his head, which in turn caused him to create a sort of green energy-shield. This shield broke whatever was coming towards him. That's when everyone could see what it was. They looked like fishing-wires, made into a sort of net, set up in such a way so that when it comes towards it's target, it would slice people. But now there's not much left of it, so it won't cause much if any harm any more.

"That was close." Ginger remarked.

"You alright, Al?" Snake asked him.

"I've survived worse." Spawn replied.

"I should've seen this before." Max explained, while she looked at the room's number, "This one is with the fishing net, triggered by a motion-detector."

Ginger, who didn't know what Max was, or can do, or didn't know that Max looked at the schematics, looked at her surprised: "How can you know all that? Are you sure you're just a ten-year-old girl?"

Snake, on the other hand, had something else on his mind: "Al, get outta there. I wanna try something."

Spawn didn't know what Snake was up to, but did as he was told. Once he was out of the room, Snake entered. The net was broken, so there was no danger of it slicing him. Still, even it weren't broken, it still wouldn't have mattered, as it didn't react to him at all.

"You gotta be fucking me..." Snake was surprised.

"What? Why isn't it working?" Max asked.

"Maybe because it was already used, it..." Ginger reasoned.

"No." Max disagreed, "It doesn't work that way."

"So these pills work after all." Snake hissed.

"What pills?" Spawn asked him.

"On the plane, I found these." Snake took the box out, "These seemed to make us undetectable."

"Couldn't you tell us that sooner?" Spawn sounded angry.

"Didn't think they'd actually wo..." Snake started, but got interrupted when the room started shaking.

"Snake, get out!" Max yelled at him, but he was too far away from the door to make it in time. Realizing that she was his only chance to get out of the Cube, Max decided to dive into the room, right before it moved away. Needless to say, her presence alarmed the motion-detector, so the net moved. Not that it mattered, as it wouldn't harm anyone. Still, Max couldn't help but duck down.

"That takes care of them." Ginger sounded cynical, right after another room had taken the place of the last one.

"Don't worry." Spawn assured her, "Max knows this Cube better than any of us. They'll make it out of there."

"Who said I'm worried?" Ginger questioned.

"Anyway..." Spawn started, "We'll have to go in the easy way now."

"Which is?" Ginger asked.

As a reply, Spawn used his chains to wreck the walls of the next room, so to be sure that if there was a trap inside it, it won't do anything. The three of them entered the Cube thusly.

Meanwhile, Max got up again, surprised of her own stupidity. Snake, however, was a little taken aback at her action.

"What'd you do that for?" he asked.

"Coz without me, you got no chance of getting out." Max replied.

Snake wasn't satisfied with that answer: "And you care about my health, why?"

"Let's say I still owe you one." Max answered.

Snake shrugged: "Whatever."

He then gave her one of his guns, which got Max to take a few steps back. She remembered the last time someone she knew used a gun. It was when she escaped the facility where she was made. One of her sisters used one to the guards, and one of them shot her.

"In case we meet our guy. You might wanna defend yourself." Snake told her.

"I don't do guns." Max told him.

Snake didn't seem to understand, but then shrugged again and put his gun back: "So, where do we go?"

"First, you give me one of those pills you mentioned." Max told him, "Just in case."

As these two are trying to find their way out, the other three were trying to find their way in. With one room after the other being destroyed, the chances of the Cube being able to do much shifting became less likely. This way, the man they were following had less chance of getting away from them. As they were going, Jason spotted something in one of the rooms. It looked like a pencil. Immediately, he notified Ginger of this, and subsequently, Spawn noticed.

"What are you two doing?" he asked them.

"Why would there be a pencil here?" Ginger wondered.

"Somebody must have left it there. So what?" Spawn replied.

"But other than our man, nobody's been here, right?" Ginger reasoned, "So this must be his."

"How does that help us?" Spawn still didn't understand.

Ginger smelled the pencil, then answered: "Strange smell."

"It's a pencil." Spawn reminded her.

"But it doesn't smell like one." Ginger told him, "What I smell must be from it's owner."

This gave her an idea. Every wall, including the floor and the ceiling, had a door. Ginger went from one to another, as she tried to find the owner's scent.

"This way." she said, as she picked up a smell.

Spawn didn't need to hear her say more, as he worked his way into that room, and into the next that Ginger pointed out.

Meanwhile, Max and Snake were well on their way out themselves. But somewhere along the way, Max sensed something.

"What is this?" she wondered.

"What's what?" Snake inquired.

"There's something near us, but..." Max didn't know how to explain it, "... there's something strange about this."

"Will you stop talking in riddles!?" Snake was losing patience.

"Believe me, I wish I knew what I'm talking about myself." Max assured him.

Snake sighed: "At least, can you take us to him, so we can settle this?"

Max didn't say anything, but instead continued. Likely she was heading towards that something she was sensing.

The guy the were looking for heard something. He was used to hearing the noises of the Cube shifting, but this was different. It was as though there was something headed towards him. Realizing this, he took all of the blueprints he had made, plus the ones he stole before, folded them up and hid it inside his suit. Unfortunately, he wasn't fast enough, as whatever was coming closer to him got in, just in time to see where in his suit he was hiding his prints.

Spawn, Ginger and Jason found the man they were chasing. The man in question appeared to be dressed like a motor-cyclist, but had this peculiar-looking belt and his helmet appeared to have a sort of mouse-motive. Because of his cyclist look, a rider if you like, Rider would be the best way to refer to this man.

"Alright!" Spawn started, "We've found you at last!"

Spawn changed his cape into an axe, and changed his crutch into a sword, which he used to attack the Rider. But the Rider was fast enough to dodge every one of his attacks. He somehow managed to jump out of Spawn's sight, and between Ginger and Jason. The latter swayed his machete, but missed. Ginger grabbed hold of the Rider's shoulder, but he grabbed her wrist and pulled her away and threw her at Jason. That's when Spawn was fast enough to turn to the Rider and decided to use his chains against him. But when the chains got hold of the Rider, the latter had a hold on the chains, and used it to pull Spawn towards him and punched him in the face. This way, Spawn was knocked out cold, and changed back into Al. Suddenly, something got the Rider in the back. Jason had managed to throw his machete in the Rider's back, but he didn't seem to realize it, until Ginger spoke.

"That usually never happens, does it?" she said.

Once the Rider realized he had a machete in his back, he pulled it out and was about to throw it back to it's owner, but Ginger jumped up and attacked him. The Rider managed to dodge the attacks, only so he could find an opening to stick the machete into her body. But when he tried, something stopped him. Jason had grabbed hold of the Rider's arm, just in time. The Rider knocked on Jason's face, but that only angered Ginger enough to kick the machete out of the Rider's hand.

"Get down!" Snake's voice suddenly shouted.

Ginger didn't know where that came from, but she did as she was told anyway. Not too long after that, a machine-gun was fired. But although many of the bullets hit the Rider, it didn't appear as though he felt much of it. Max, seeing the effect before Snake even stopped shooting, decided to run to the Rider and fight him on her own. Her speed and agility was about enough to make the Rider confused, as he couldn't do much to counteract against her. At last, he even stopped moving, as Jason had taken his machete back and swung it towards the Rider's neck. This movement was so swift, it took a while before the body stopped moving, or even before the head fell off.


	11. Chapter 11

Big was the surprise when the decapitated body didn't bleed. As it turned out, it wasn't a man in a suit, or a man at all. It was a machine. With the head now separated from the body, everyone could see the cogs and electric wires that kept it running.

"What the..." Snake couldn't understand what he just saw.

"Something's still not right." Max said.

"Zort?" Ginger mentioned, which nobody understood.

Spawn, meanwhile, was getting up, with some difficulty: "Ugh... what's happening?"

"What's 'zort'?" Snake asked Ginger.

"I don't know." Ginger snapped at him, "You better ask the one saying that."

"Who are you talking about?" Snake still didn't understand.

"Our man's a robot?" Spawn only just saw for himself.

Max, meanwhile, approached the robot's head. She picked it up, while the other ones are still talking.

"I don't know what the fuck's going on, but I keep hearing two people talking." Ginger explained.

"Then why don't we hear anything?" Snake wondered.

"She's a werewolf. She's got sharper senses." Spawn explained.

"Guys, listen!" Max said to them.

Everyone listened intently, then they started to hear it too.

"... must get out of this head, and get the plans back." a voice was getting louder.

"Is that Orson Welles?" Spawn wondered.

"Don't think so." Max said.

Jason had had enough. He grabbed the head, threw it towards a nearby wall, causing it to smash itself open. When opened, everyone could distinguish two white mice, each of whom appeared to wear peculiar belts, just like the robot they, apparently, controlled.

"Naaaaarf..." the tallest and skinniest of the two mumbled.

"If I knew my new bio-mechanical suit would... cause such tremendous... pain..." the smaller one with a large head moaned.

"Mice?" Spawn sounded more than a little surprised, disappointed maybe, "Our man was controlled by two... mice?"

"So that's what I sensed." Max explained.

"That cat-DNA of yours helps you to sense mice?" Snake wondered, "You must be joking."

The smaller one shook his head, somehow shaking his pain away, then spoke to the other: "Pinky. We'd better change!"

"Poit! Got it Brain!" the taller one, Pinky, replied, "Oh, wait, no. Into what?"

As the the smaller one, Brain, smacked his own forehead, Max couldn't help herself, but she started to laugh: "This is easy."

She went down to pick up the two, but not before Brain had punched a button on both his and Pinky's belt. Max grabbed them both, but somehow they both changed into suits, similar to what their robot wore, which helped them to be much stronger, so they could get out of her grip. Once out, they ran to their robot's body, but the way there wasn't easy, as everybody tried to block their ways.

"Quick, Pinky." Brain then said, "We must gro... never mind."

He punched another button on both his and Pinky's chest, which somehow caused them to become human-sized.

"What... how did you do that?" Max wondered.

"Who cares? Now it's easier to fight them." Spawn replied.

This turned out to be a underestimation, as earlier they were fighting one man, and now there were two of them. On the other hand, the fight was heavy enough, so neither Pinky or Brain managed to get to the body and snatch away the plans they made.

"Pinky, we'd better retreat." Brain then decided.

"Narf... alright, Brain." Pinky replied.

They dodged all the next attacks, and made it to one of the room's doors, which they opened, right before pressing that button on their chest, which made them small again.

"What is that?" Max saw a small mechanical device, waiting behind the door, which the two mice were about to mount. Max didn't know what that device was, but she wouldn't allow them to escape.

The two have mounted the device, while Brain said: "We'd better return, and prepare for tomorrow night."

"Why, Brain?" Pinky wondered, as the device was being activated, "What are we going to do tomorrow night?"

"Same thing we do every night, Pinky." Brain answered, "Try to take o..."

Just as he was finishing his sentence, the device, along with it's passengers, vanished into thin air, as though it was never there to begin with. Max had only just jumped through the open door and was about to grab them when that happened. Needless to say that she didn't catch them, and smacked on the floor, not knowing what just happened.

"Damn, those mice were prepared." Snake remarked.

"Where did they go?" Ginger wondered.

Spawn didn't care much about that, as he moved towards the robot-body, and took out the plans that were hidden inside it: "At least we got what we came for. And right before they even finished their plans. I'd say we succeeded!"

Everyone agreed to that, safe for Max: "This isn't right. Where's that girl, Tess Doerner?"

"Maybe in another room." Ginger reasoned.

"Hold on one second." Snake then realized it too, "This doesn't make sense. Why kidnap that girl when they didn't finish their plans? It would be much to difficult for them to keep her alive until it's finished.

"Not to mention that if they kept her in another room, she has to be nearby, so they can reach her any minute, but she's not anywhere near." Max reasoned.

"In other words..." Spawn thought out loud, "The girl is not here?"

"Then that means..." Snake realized.

"Her kidnapping has nothing to do with this theft!" Max said.

"This is confusing." Ginger whined, "Don't you think, Jase?"

Spawn still wasn't entirely convinced: "It's still too much of a coincidence, that of all people, it has to be that one 4400 woman that they kidnapped."

"Your point?" Snake asked.

Before anyone could answer, the whole Cube started to shake. Everyone could feel it, but nobody could explain it.

"An earthquake?" Ginger wondered.

"I don't think so..." Max said, "It feels more like..."

Before she could say anything, something tore the ceiling open. How this happened, none of them were sure, but it looked as though fire was being blown through the Cube, which torched much of the structure.

What none of them knew, is that the dragons that started to rampage the planet two years earlier, had found this structure. It made peculiar sounds, which made a small group of them quite curious. So they tried to open up the outer shell, only to see the actual Cube, but their curiosity wasn't satisfied then. Again, they used all their might, claws, fangs and fire, to open up the Cube.

The ones inside could only run for cover. Spawn created a shield, which covered all five of them, but that became obsolete when the floor beneath them gave in. It didn't take long before the entire Cube was torn down.

Nobody knew how much time had passed since then, but at least Snake woke up at some point. There was much rubble and he suffered quite some injuries. But he had recovered from worse before, so he knew this was nothing in comparison. When he opened his eyes, he saw that most of his body was stuck under a heavy wall. With only one arm loose, he tried to heave it, but it didn't work. That's when two other arms appeared before him, which helped him heave up the wall. It also didn't take long before Snake recognized the one helping him. It was the same young man whom he's met before.

"You..." Snake hissed.

"The other four are still unconscious." the young man said, "They'll be alright, but the little girl looks in a bad shape."

Once Snake was free from the wall, he searched for his gun, so he could point it to the young man, but he couldn't find it.

"Looking for that?" the young man pointed to a gun, which lay nearby.

"Alright, why don't you just tell me why you're here, Kenneth Tam." Snake sounded threatening.

The young man smirked: "So you know my name. Then you must also understand why I'm doing this."

"Doing what?" Snake asked him.

"Do you know how I stop that girl's shaking?" he asked Snake.

Snake sighed, just before asking him: "Where is she, Kenny?"

The young man, Kenny, hesitated at first, but eventually pointed: "She's over there."

Snake ran to the place he pointed out, where he helped Max take her pills. Meanwhile, Kenny tried to help the other three out as well.

"You know, Snake, only my girlfriend gets to call me Kenny." Kenny told him.

"Always the girlfriend, huh..." Snake hissed, not caring much.

Once he had helped Max, he got up and marched to Kenny, was about to punch him, but Kenny appeared to have eyes on his back, as he dodged the attack.

"Got a problem? Why don't you just talk?" Kenny suggested.

"Talk, huh?" Snake considered this, "Why are you here, and why didn't you help us back there?"

"Did you need my help?" Kenny sounded somewhat cocky, "If you know who I am, you should know that my girlfriend's kidnapped. And I will not rest until she is saved."

"Is that why you're still alive?" Snake asked, "Even when you're dead?"

"Should I tell him?" Kenny said, apparently talking to someone who's not there, then waited for a reply, which he must have received as he continued talking, "All you need to know is that you people can help me find her, that's why I'm helping."

"But why do you only talk to me?" Snake didn't understand that bit.

"Because of all the five, at least you have an idea of honor. I wouldn't trust anything to them just yet." Kenny answered.

"This is just great." Snake sighed, "Why does everyone have this..."

Snake had turned away for one second while talking, but when he turned back to Kenny, he had disappeared again.


	12. Chapter 12

Sarjevane, April 23, 2010

Stryuss was still tending to the five, while Thirteen was briefing them: "And you're sure that Doerner wasn't with them?"

"We'd have found her if she was." Max assured him.

"Anyone ever even thought her kidnapping is not fucking related?" Ginger wondered.

"If so, we'd have found her by now." Thirteen told her, "If it were just amateurs kidnapping her for some stupid reason, they'd leave enough clues for us to find them. And if it were professionals needing her for her power, we'd have realized their use of it already."

"So in other words..." Al whined, "You're not letting us go yet."

Jason, who doesn't talk, had his own way of expressing how he feels about that realisation, by punching a hole into the nearest wall.

"Although I don't like him trashing the place any more than you do..." Stryuss started, "... I agree with him."

"Do you think I like keeping prisoners?" Thirteen wondered, "The world is already under attack by too many things to name. We can't have another threat on top of it. So I'm sorry, but both Largo and I are just doing what we must do."

"Funny." Max snorted, "Aren't you in some way responsible for the death of the president, Wally Sheridan?"

Thirteen was used to hearing that, but he still didn't understand one thing: "You know about that?"

"Yes." Max replied, "But just now, you almost sounded like him."

"Or anyone else that followed." Ginger agreed.

Thirteen didn't know what to say to that.

"What about you, Snake?" Al started, "You've been unusually quiet. Even for you."

He was right, as Snake appeared to be spacing out at the time. He couldn't understand why this guy Kenny would trust only him. But that idea got him to think of something else. As Kenny is trying to save his girlfriend, it got him to think of what he's been told about her kidnapping. She may indeed be used to put the will of her kidnapper on their minds, and easily be more vulnerable if she knew that he were dead, but now that he knows that it's not the case, this shouldn't be a problem. He never thought of himself to be cupid, but he always considered himself to be a free man in a not-so-free world. With that in mind, he realized just how chaotic the world would become if she were to be in control, or rather the man controlling her would be in control of everybody, including himself. Altogether, he has all reasons to not turn away from this.

"Snake?" Al repeated.

Snake got up at last and made his leave from the room, but Thirteen tried to stop him: "Where are you going?"

"To find that girl." Snake replied.

This surprised everyone in the room, but Max was the one to talk: "That's strangely noble of you."

"Don't even start!" Snake exclaimed, "Even if the kidnapper is not trying to built a giant robot, I'm sure that a girl who can control people's minds will cause more trouble if she stays where she is now."

Jason heard him talk, and realized he was right. Knowing what Tess could do, who knows what she'd do to people like him. She could make him do things he doesn't want to do, or make people pester him more. Or worse, she could turn him against Ginger, or Ginger against him. With that in mind, he stepped towards Snake.

"You're with me?" Snake asked him, after which Jason nodded, "Good."

Ginger didn't know why Jason would do that, but she did know that if he would make such a decision, he'd have a good reason to do so. So she said: "If you're going, then I'll go too."

"This is so out of place here." Thirteen remarked.

"Maybe not." Max said, "I've known one man in my life who tried to control me back in Manticore, I won't live through that again!"

"Looks like y'all made up your minds." Al remarked, "But I'm sure you'll need help from someone like me."

This made Thirteen come to the following conclusion: "Well then, I suppose this changes a lot of things."

"How so?" Snake wondered.

"I don't have to force you guys to do anything anymore." Thirteen answered, "That's a relieve."

"Don't push your luck just yet." Al told him

New Jersey

Meanwhile, one of Group W's planes landed in New Jersey, where one of it's passengers got out, to meet with a man, who waited for him at the airport. The latter was Morris, who tried to get the blueprints to the client before. But Morris was surprised to see who delivered him the package.

"Mr. Ovronnaz?" Morris questioned.

"Expected someone else?" Ovronnaz asked him.

"I just thought that Winch would bring this to me himself." Morris said, "I mean, he's not known to trust so many people."

Ovronnaz laughed at that: "Then I should be flattered."

"Anyway, my client is getting impatient, so where is it?" Morris finally asked him.

Ovronnaz brought up his briefcase, opened it, and showed it's contents, which Morris recognized immediately.

"This answers it?" Ovronnaz asked.

Without another word, Morris just took the briefcase out of Ovronnaz's hands and got in his car, rather than the fancy limousine he used before. Just before that drove away, Ovronnaz noticed something weird about how it started. It's rear end seemed to sink down, as though a heavy cargo was loaded onto it. Morris noticed this too, but he thought the car malfunctioned somewhere, so he didn't pay much attention to it.

The car drove the same spot where the transaction was supposed to have happened. There, Morris met with somebody, but it wasn't Tracy.

"I thought you had it covered." Morris told that somebody.

"It is not my fault that not I alone am interested in that technology." the other man spoke, with a strange accent.

"And I thought you had the power to take down everyone that stands in your way." Morris reasoned, "I'm beginning to wonder why I even took you seriously, Doctor."

The man had enough of Morris talking like that. All he did was stretch out his hand, and the briefcase, somehow, flew into the Doctor's hand. Morris backed away at the sight of that.

"Not to worry." the Doctor said, "You'll be rewarded gravely for this."

Morris still had one question: "Er... I do kinda need an excuse why Tracy didn't..."

"THAT'S YOUR PROBLEM!" the Doctor replied.

Somewhat surprised to see this, Morris ran back to his car, got back in and drove away.

As he was driving away, Morris tried to think of a way to cover himself from this. There was only one thing he could think of doing, so with that in mind, he took out his phone and called Ovronnaz.

"Mr. Ovronnaz?" he started, when the call was answered.

"Morris?" he sounded surprised, "Is there a problem?"

"Yeah there is." Morris replied, "Those things you gave me, they're not the blueprints."

"What?" Ovronnaz couldn't understand at first, but then realized why that was the case: "You must have gotten the thief's plans."

"Excuse me?" Morris didn't understand at first.

"The man who stole them from you." Ovronnaz explained, "He tried to built his own machines. They must have accidentally given me those."

Morris was relieved to hear that there is a way out of this: "Well then, where are the real plans?"

"They're in a secret location." Ovronnaz answered.

"Take me there." Morris insisted, "I have to be sure I get the right ones this time."

Ovronnaz sounded quiet at first, but then said: "Let me talk to Winch first."

Morris agreed to that. It was a lie that the wrong prints were given, but if he could give Tracy those other prints, he'd be happy none the less, and nobody would suspect him of being a mole.

Sarjevane

Thirteen was talking to Largo over the phone, telling him how the five have decided to go through with everything, without anyone forcing them.

"The moment they have something to gain out of it themselves, they are very helpful." Largo remarked.

"I suppose." Thirteen agreed, "At least we don't need to do things which we'll regret later."

That's when his phone warned him that he was getting another call.

"Will you excuse me for a moment?" Thirteen asked Largo, after which he pressed the button to switch to the other caller, "Mac Lane."

"It's me, Caine." Caine said.

"Caine? I haven't seen you in a while." Thirteen replied, "Pardon the pun."

"This is no time for jokes." Caine sounded unusually serious.

"Where are you anyway?" Thirteen asked him.

"I hitched a ride to New Jersey." Caine replied, "You wouldn't believe what I just saw here!"


	13. Chapter 13

Zurich, April 24, 2010

Morris was in this city, accompanied by Ovronnaz, who was taking him to where the other plans were hidden. It should be surprising that Morris had to be in Switzerland, but he didn't appear as much.

"I suppose Winch literally has a bank account here, where the Pulse didn't take effect." Morris wondered.

"Even if I knew, I shouldn't tell you that." Ovronnaz answered.

"I suppose I should be thankful that he did this." Morris said, "Or else all the great companies couldn't be saved, like Cale Industries, which would've put me on the street if that happened."

Ovronnaz didn't say anything. Instead, he stopped at a large building. Morris, who looked at the building and recognized it as a bank, didn't understand: "What is this?"

"Believe it or not." Ovronnaz said, "But this is the best place to keep things safe. Like those plans."

"I should hope so." Morris said.

Together, they entered the building. All the necessary steps were taken, showing the bankers that Largo Winch himself approved Ovronnaz's entry to the safe-deposit, entering the security code to at all even be allowed to the safe,... after a while, the safe was opened, and a box was found inside it. Once they had it, Ovronnaz and Morris retreated into a room, where they could quietly take out what they were looking for. But when the box was opened, all Morris could see was a blue piece of paper that read: "Busted."

"Is this a joke?" Morris asked.

"At least a funnier one than yours." a voice said.

Morris did recognize the voice, but he couldn't believe it to be who he thought it was, until the man to whom the voice belonged entered the room himself.

"M... Mr Winch?" Morris sounded somewhat nervous, "Why are..."

"You can cut the act." Largo said, as he took his knife out of his pocket and Ovronnaz raised his gun.

Morris thought he could help himself out of this: "Er... hey! Aren't weapons for..."

"And since when do you care about the rules?" Largo questioned.

"For someone like Largo, it's hardly a bother to bring guns in a bank." Ovronnaz answered Morris.

"Thank you, Simon." Largo said, referring to Ovronnaz by his first name, "Well now, Mr. Morris, tell me who you're really working for?"

Morris backed away, desperately looking for an exit: "Not even my high school principle Belding ever had me cornered like this."

"Flattery won't get you anywhere... Zachery." Largo remarked, "I've got an eye-witness who saw you talking to a Doctor. Does this doctor have a name?"

Morris didn't say anything, so Ovronnaz decided to take the safety off his gun and Largo was about ready to throw his knife.

"Krimson!" afraid of what would happen, Morris finally admitted, "His name's Krimson!"

Sarjevane

The five were still on the island. They wanted to start looking for the girl, but something came up, so they were told to wait until further notice. This did make them think of some things.

"You don't think that Winch wants that girl for his own business?" Max suddenly decided to say.

"He can try that." Snake remarked.

"What's that?" Ginger asked him.

"Never mind." Snake replied.

"Business people have money to burn, but they always need more." Al said, "That Winch already has some of the most powerful ones under his wing, like Luthor- and Oscorp, or Wayne, Stark and Cale Industries. And the 4400-cult is growing stronger as we speak, so if he could use that Tess to take that too,... you're right, Max, he may need her for his own business."

"If I ever meet anyone rich, I'll beat him into a wheelchair and take all that makes him rich." Max had made up her mind about that.

"Or we can use that weapon that the government is working on now." Al thought out loud.

"What weapon?" Snake asked.

"From what I heard, our government thinks that an EM-Pulse is a powerful weapon to use against their enemies." Al explained.

"Luckily, I don't have to care about what your government thinks." Ginger laughed.

"Well, anyway..." Al continued, "They're working on an entire satellite system that would shut down all electricity. Wherever they want and whenever they want."

"In other words, history will repeat itself, again." Snake hissed.

This is when Thirteen entered the mess-hall, where they were gathered.

"Why, Thirteen..." Ginger sounded her usual sarcastic self, "You still need us after all."

"I wish I could laugh right now." Thirteen replied, "Unfortunately, I have much worse news."

All five of them looked somewhat surprised, if not worried, at Thirteen, who continued: "The theft of these blueprints and the kidnapping of Tess Doerner may still be connected."

"How?" Max asked him.

"I don't know anything more on the mice." Thirteen said, "But it would seem like they were just in this by coincidence."

"Do I have to repeat myself?" Max didn't want to ask 'how' again.

"Sorry." Thirteen apologised, "Mr. Morris, who was to deliver the prints to Tracy, had made a deal with someone. It was supposed to look like theft, so Morris would be left out of it, but then the two mice intervened."

"So you think that this... other guy is the same one behind the kidnapping?" Al asked him.

"I'm still waiting for details from Mars." Thirteen replied, "But what I can tell for sure is that a Doctor Krimson is behind it all."

"Krimson!?" Snake exclaimed, surprised, "You can't be serious."

"You know about him?" Thirteen asked him.

"How could I not know him?!" Snake told him, "He's known to be the King of Crime, Europe's most wanted, especially in Belgium, or what was Belgium at the time. But he can't be behind all this."

"What makes you think that?" Thirteen wondered.

"If he didn't O.D. on all the drugs he was taking, age would've killed him by now." Snake answered.

"And what if he's as dead as Al is?" Max asked him.

"No." Al didn't think so, "Hell wouldn't send another hellspawn like me just yet."

"Think we'll ever meet someone a little more normal again, Jase?" Ginger asked Jason.

"Unfortunately, nobody knows all the details." Thirteen told them, "What we do know is that he was last seen in Professor Barabas' house."

"And that Barabas would be...?" Max wondered.

"A inventor, not unknown to many scientists." Thirteen explained, "Rumor has it that he had invented the time-machine. But then, there are other inventors of whom the same thing is being said. Still..."

"Still what?" Snake asked him.

"As I said, Krimson was last seen there, according to his accomplices." Thirteen said, "The house itself was left in ruins, Barabas himself was found in a bad shape, as were the remains of a machine of which nobody knew, or could even figure out it's use. But Krimson himself was never found. Some people who knew about the time-machine speculated that he must have used the machine to escape."

"But that's just speculation." Al remarked.

"Maybe." Thirteen replied, "But from what Morris told me, Krimson could just stretch out his hand, and make things fly into it."

"What? You mean like telekinesis?" Max asked him.

"You're joking, right?" Ginger didn't take this serious.

"If this Morris has double-crossed you people, then how can you take him serious?" Snake wondered.

"If he lied, he would have said it was just a regular guy." Thirteen reasoned, "Plus Caine's eye-witness report confirms this."

"So that invisible bastard's good for somethin' after all." Snake hissed.

"So what are you saying?" Al wondered, "That Krimson used that time machine to travel to the present time?"

"We don't know where he went, if he used the machine." Thirteen replied, "But last time he was seen, he couldn't do such things, and now he can. Wherever he went, or whenever he went, it must have changed him somehow."

"But whatever power he has, it's clearly not enough." Snake said, "Or else he wouldn't want to make a giant robot."

"Agreed." Thirteen said, "That's why we're using those mice's plans now."

"What?" everyone said in unison.

"Once Krimson has his robot finished, how do you plan on stopping it otherwise?" Thirteen asked.

"But I've seen those plans." Max told him, "Their robot has no way of working."

"Maybe, but at least Tracy understand enough of it, so he can correct some things that they had in mind." Thirteen assured her, "Also, this way he'd know what materials he'd best use, or not use, when he makes his own machines. He has just as much to gain from this as we do."

Lynchburg, Virginia

In this U.S. capital city (as it has been since the election of the last president), somewhere in the city's park, a young man was sitting on a bench, reading a newspaper. Though, if anyone looked at the article that he was reading, they'd notice that he wasn't reading the paper at all, but a comic book.

"That's completely inconspicuous." a young girl's voice said.

The young man turned around, only to see Mars, who spotted him reading the comic.

"Well now, Agent Banks..." Mars said, "... aren't you a little too old to be reading 'Captain Napalm' comics?"

"Yeah well..." the young man, Banks, replied, "... it this is all that the papers can write about, wouldn't you lose interest?"

Banks showed Mars the headline of the day: 'Mysterious slab disappeared.' along with a short article that spoke about strange activity on Jupiter.

"Besides, I wouldn't say I'm too old to read these comics either." Banks added, "As the constitution these days forbid kids to read these."

"Those new rules make me wonder why I even wanted to join the Federal office." Mars said.

"Yeah, this country was a lot different when I joined Intelligence too." Banks replied, "But I'm sure you didn't come here just to remember old times."

"Read my mind." Mars replied as she finally said down next to him. She gave him a magazine, to which she added: "I want you to help me look out for something."

"I can't say I can do this without anyone noticing." Banks warned her, "Ever since somebody hacked into many government systems, including that base in Creek Mountain, they're quite paranoid."

"I'm sure they are." Mars replied.

"I'm serious." Banks told her, "They're even trying to find this guy on the internet who apparently knows about this, despite that it's not supposed to be public knowledge."

"So I heard." Mars couldn't care less.

"Some people even speculate that you may know this guy they speak of." Banks reasoned.

"Cody, even if I did..." Mars replied, calling Banks by his first name, "... do you expect me to say it out loud?"

"I suppose not." Banks agreed, "Oh well... I'll look through this, and if I find anything, you'll be the first to know, Veronica."

"That's Agent Mars to you." Mars replied, just before getting up to leave him.

Banks didn't do anything to stop her. Instead, he looked at the magazine she gave him. It had a few loose papers inside it, which must contain the information about that which Mars wants him to find.

* * *

Note: if you want to know more about this internet guy mentioned in this chapter, you should read my other story, "How I Spent My Summer".


	14. Chapter 14

An island, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, April 30, 2010

At this moment, both Largo and Thirteen were still on their way to this island. While on the plane, Thirteen explained what he knew.

"If Morris was supposed to be stolen by somebody other than the two mice, but these mice intervened, then there should've been a fight between the mice and this other person." Thirteen explained.

"In which case there would be a man found near the transaction location." Largo deduced.

"Indeed." Thirteen replied, "More than one even, in case there were guards, or if the drivers would try to intervene."

"For all his might, he's still too lazy to do anything himself." Largo laughed.

"Maybe he didn't want to draw too much attention to himself, as the world still thinks him dead." Thirteen continued, "Anyway, these men later checked into the nearest hospital, where there were enough cameras for us to have an image of them. And their description matched eye-witness reports about the men that abducted Doerner."

"So the two are connected after all." Largo said, "We were right from the start."

"It still remains to be seen whether those other blueprints we're using now will help." Thirteen pondered, "I mean, the original prints were likely complex enough for the mice to try and make a more simple version. And it's that simple version that Tracy is now trying to built."

"Not to mention that Krimson may find a way to make a more powerful version of the original prints." Largo said, "Believe me, I don't feel any better at this than you do."

After some time, they finally arrived on the island, that had a landing strip. The island on it's own appeared tropical, what with the palm trees and everything, albeit that some of those trees were pulled out of the ground, only to plant some kind of mechanism in the ground, and then they put the tree back in. Not to mention that at the end to the landing strip, there was a huge gate, where people appeared to be working overtime to cover it with rocks, so it would blend in with it's surroundings.

When Largo and Thirteen left the plane, Tracy was there to great them: "Mr. Winch, Mr. Mac Lane. Welcome to my island."

"You own all of this?" Thirteen asked him.

"It pays off to be an astronaut." Tracy replied.

"How can you even hide all this from all the satellites?" Thirteen wondered.

"If I told you that, I'll have to kill you." Tracy replied, "But at this time, we're lucky that most satellites are pointed towards Jupiter, so nobody pays much attention to what's going on here, so we get as much of the work we can't hide done."

"So how's our task-force?" Largo asked Tracy.

"Well, there's not much to say." Tracy told him, "But they do appear to be happy to be here. I guess they couldn't do much where they were before. Here, they can help in building and testing the robot we're building, and Jeff even gets to be with someone of his own age."

"Jeff?" Largo didn't know that name.

"My son." Tracy elaborated.

"And when do you expect this to be ready?" Thirteen asked.

"Well, considering what I have to work with, and using a Promicine-positive to help..." Tracy explained.

"Hold on, a Promicine-positive?" Thirteen questioned.

"Yes, Promicine." Tracy explained, "That drug that gave the 4400 their abilities."

"I'm aware of what Promicine is..." Thirteen told him, "But how can one of them help?"

"Only because this one can make copies of himself." Tracy explained, "In doing so, he can make enough of himself to do weeks of work in a matter of days."

"Well, then that would reduce the amount of people who'd know about all this." Largo deduced.

"Just one, not counting you or the task-force." Tracy replied.

"Just one?" this surprised Largo.

That's when he looked around, and noticed that everyone he's seen at work, at first they may just appear to look-a-like, just because they're at a distance, or wear the same garment, not to mention that some of them wear special masks for their tasks. But when taking a closer look, they don't just appear a-like, they are a-like.

"So all this should be finished in a few days?" Thirteen asked.

"Weeks would be more likely." Tracy answered.

"Can we see what you've got so far?" Largo wondered.

"Of course." Tracy replied, "Follow me."

He lead them inside the island, where an entire complex was built, full of cranes, robots (or some form thereof), and secret contraptions. One would wonder where he got the time or the money to built any of this. Still, even with what he had at the time, it was still not enough to do whatever it is that Tracy was planning to do. Most of the complex was still under construction, mostly because there was no knowledge as to what machines this complex was to hide. At this moment, the only thing they would have to launch when needed, would be the giant robot. And when the three of them arrived at the giant robot, or something that's supposed to look like one, they looked in awe at it. For the most part, it appeared to be just a few old vehicles placed in weird positions. For instance, trucks with their trailers were used for the legs, an airplane made the torso, trains formed arms, and tanks were the shoulders for the arms.

"These mice wouldn't happen to have been Frankenstein's lab-rats, would they?" Largo remarked.

"You said we had to hurry to build this thing." Tracy explained, "This is the best we could do."

"How is this even supposed to leave this place?" Thirteen wondered.

"Can you guess where we are now?" Tracy asked the two of them.

Neither one of them saw the relevance of this, but all they did was shake their heads.

"Above here, there's the pool." Tracy explained, "It'll move away when this robot is being launched."

"And you're sure it'll be ready by then?" Largo wondered, "Because I'm not so sure..."

"Neither am I." Tracy said, "But if this man you've mentioned to me is as dangerous as you say he is, we can't be fast enough with this."

"How will this thing be controlled anyway?" Thirteen asked him.

"You see those tanks?" Tracy pointed, "Each of them will have somebody controlling them. And since only Snake and Al have been trained to ride one of them, that shouldn't be too hard."

"And the other three?" Largo asked him.

"There will be an exo-skeleton inside, which would allow the wearer to control the robot." Tracy explained, "In other words, move the exo-skeleton's arm, the robot's arm will move, etcetera."

"And who would do that?" Largo was curious.

"Since the skeleton is rudimentary at most, it's not designed for everyone, unless they're physically as strong as Jason." Tracy answered, "We also allowed Max to know the design of the robot, so in case something goes wrong during battle, she can quickly get to the source of the problem and fix it. As for Ginger, she's to keep track of things. Monitors will be placed inside the robot's head, where she can see if something's losing power, or stopped moving."

This was something that Thirteen couldn't understand: "You think someone who's lived in the woods for a time and hasn't got any knowledge of..."

"Don't worry." Tracy assured him, "With just some proper explaining, even a child can understand what the monitors say."

"Provided she pays attention during the explanation." Thirteen wasn't so sure.

Tracy didn't say much to this.


	15. Chapter 15

Tracy's Island, May 7, 2010

When Mars arrived on the island, there was no indication that somebody was working on something in a secret, therefor, for all she cared, Thirteen and his task-force just moved their location.

In any case, once she was on the island, she was escorted to where Thirteen and the others were, which was in the house on top of the island's hill, in it's living room. Once there, Thirteen was the one to start talking.

"Mars. You got something?" he asked her.

"Whatever my friend at Intelligence found, it was so important he couldn't tell me directly." Mars explained, "But he did manage to slip me this."

She held up a compact disc, and asked: "Is there a CD-player I can use?"

"There is over there." Thirteen pointed behind her.

Mars turned to go there, while asking: "This Island belongs to Winch too?"

"From what we're told, it's best for you to not know about this." Max told her.

"Of course I can't know the things I wanna know." Mars almost sounded as though she was whining.

In any case, she inserted the disc and started playing it. What it played, sounded a lot like Jack-in-the-box music.

"This a joke?!" Snake didn't think this was funny.

Mars stopped the play, then turned the disc over: "Why do both sides even look the same?"

When playing the other side of the disc, they heard this: "Hello, Mars."

Although it was addressed to Mars, she knew that the person talking on the disc couldn't hear her, so she didn't say anything.

"You're not saying anything back?" the voice said, "It's not because I'm a disc you're listening to that you shouldn't be polite."

"Cody, can't you be serious once?" Mars whined to herself.

"Do we have to listen to his whining?" Al was getting impatient.

"No." was Mars' definite answer, after which she pressed the fast-forward button.

"... but anyway, about the info you were asking." the voice continued, "There hasn't been any report about this Doctor recently, or anyone that fits his description. However, in the Western-Flanders region, there have been reports of people disappearing at night, and when they return the next morning, they can't remember where they've been. This wouldn't have been weird if it happened to just one or two people in multiple towns, but here I'm talking about a form of mass-amnesia. All that is known about these people disappearing is that they come back exhausted and with their muscles burning, as though they've done some heavy physical labour. And if that isn't enough, there have been reports from the harbours in Antwerp, Bruges and Ghent, of containers to disappear. Most of these containers containing either machines, or power-sources. I don't know what's going on, but I'm guessing you're planning to do something about this."

"Flanders..." Ginger started, "... as in Belgium?"

"Not since three years ago." Thirteen told her, "The country has split into two separate countries. It's now either Wallony, or Flanders, but not Belgium."

"It makes sense that Krimson would hide there." Snake said, "As he is from that region."

"Then why didn't we go looking for him there?" Ginger asked.

"Why didn't you return to your hometown when that 4400-guy helped you?" Al asked her.

"Smart move to hide there, though." Max said, "He knew we'd think it too obvious that he'd hide there, so we wouldn't look."

"Still, now we know where he is." Snake reasoned, "We'd better go get him."

"Not so fast, Snake." Thirteen told him, "Our own robot is not finished yet."

"So what?" Snake reasoned, "We're gonna sit here wait for Krimson to finish his?"

"An excellent point." Al agreed, "If we can find him, maybe we can destroy his robot before he can finish it."

"Sounds like fun to me." Ginger remarked, after which she turned to Jason, "You think so too, Jase?"

Jason nodded, as he was about ready to take his machete out.

"If you're going, then I'd better warn Dr. Struyss too." Thirteen said, "He's from that country, perhaps he can guide you there."

The skies, May 8, 2010

The five of them were on the plane, headed towards Flanders. There wasn't much they had to say to each other. Ginger was talking about old times to Jason, Max was studying some books about the country they were about to visit, be it their culture or their language, while Al and Snake were discussing about the robot.

"I wonder though..." Al started, somewhere in the middle of the discussion, "If we're going to destroy Krimson's robot, then does it matter if Tracy will transport his' to us?"

"You never know." Snake answered, "Things don't always go as planned."

"Even if so, how do you know our robot can do anything?" Al questioned.

"We don't, until we try." Snake answered.

Suddenly, Max picked up a book, three times the size of "The Bible", entitled "Belgium For The Novice Volume One".

"Why are you reading about Belgium? It doesn't exist anymore." Snake asked her.

"No." Max answered, "But it can help for us to blend in if we knew something about their history."

Ginger, suddenly stopping her talk with Jason: "I really wish we would go to France, though."

"Why is that?" Al wondered.

"So I can eat French fries while in France." she answered.

Max was about to correct her: "Actually, fries are invented in..."

"Never mind that." Snake interrupted, "Why are you reading all that anyway? We got our guide."

"Like you said, you never know." Max replied.

* * *

Note: Belgium, as it's described in this chapter (and the next ones) is either satirical or fictitious (based on many works of fiction, as well as how people feel about that country, inside as well as outside).


	16. Chapter 16

Veurne, Flanders, May 8, 2010

At this small airport, the plane landed. The five of them got out and met with Struyss.

"You're finally here." he said, "Good, so I'd best tell you what I heard so far."

"You did some research yourself?" this surprised Snake.

"No." Struyss replied, "I just met with some old friends. You have to understand, since I moved to Amsterdam with my boyfriend..."

"Wait. Your... boyfriend?" Max couldn't understand that.

"It happens." Ginger told her, "Get used to it, kid."

"Anyway, it's been a while since I've been here." Struyss explained, "So you can understand how my old friends would love to tell me the latest news."

"Nice to hear you catch up on old times." Al started, "But what did you find out?"

"Not much." Struyss answered, "But when I listen to the old people here, they say the disappearing people go to the 'Sprout House'. Which is easy to believe, as that house hasn't been growing any sprouts in many years."

"And where do we find this House?" Snake wondered.

"Brussels." Max answered, "Or why else do you think they call them 'Brussels sprouts'?"

"You know about it?" Struyss asked her.

"I read some bit about this country's history." Max replied.

"That good to know." Struyss sounded relieved, "Then you don't need me anymore."

As Struyss was about to turn away, Jason stopped him.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Struyss whined.

"You're supposed to be our guide. Why are you leaving us?" Al agreed with Jason's action.

"Well, this man you're trying to find, he's dangerous, yes?" Struyss explained, "Dangerous enough to destroy the world, from what Mr. Winch told me."

"So?" Al still didn't understand.

"If the world will be destroyed, I want to be with the man I love when that happens." Struyss replied.

"You, a man, could love another man?" this was still new to Max.

Jason, knowing for himself how he would feel if he weren't with the one he loves in an event such as this, he understood, so he let Struyss go.

"Just one thing." Snake asked him before he left, "How do we get to Brussels?"

"Take the train." Struyss answered, "It's very easy."

And then he left.

"Well, you heard the man." Al said, "You know the language, Max?"

"Sure do. It's quite similar to English, actually." Max answered.

"Good. Then let's go." Al said.

Brussels

Once they arrived in the city, the search began for the Sprout House. However, after an hour's search, they didn't get much further. Whatever this Sprout House is, it must be that old if nobody even remembers where to find it. But that wasn't the most difficult part. Max appeared to have a communication problem with many of the locals. After some time, this started to bother the other four.

"I thought you knew their language?!" Al asked her.

"I thought so too." Max answered, "But everyone I've met so far speak either French or German. And those few who do know English can only say 'my tailor is rich' and 'the flowers are beautiful'."

"Sounds like they do know Romeo Alfa around here." Ginger remarked.

"Who?" Max didn't know the artist Ginger mentioned.

"Oh, you peoples speak English?" a squeaky voice spoke to them.

They all turned to see who was talking. It was a man, with long red curly hair, a moustache, and wearing an old brown trench coat.

"Who are you?" Snake asked this man.

"I'm from totally from _Melle_, only to meet with you Americans." the man answered.

"Excuse me." Ginger needed to say this, "I'm not American."

"That is for me no problem." the man said, "I love erotic women."

"Erotic?" Ginger was nearly speechless when she heard him say that.

"I think he means exotic." Max said.

"_Helaba_!" the man exclaimed, but although nobody understood the word he used, he sounded somewhat agitated, "I said I like erotic women! Some dirty girl you have there."

"I think you better leave now." Ginger sounded threatening, at which Jason started to come between them.

"Oh, you are her little friend, yes?" the man asked him, "Perhaps we can start a three..."

"Now listen..." Snake interrupted him, "... Mr. Man from Mel-luh. Unless you can tell us where we can find the Sprout House, we don't need you here."

"The Sprout House?" the man appeared to know it, "That's easy! It's just behind _Vorst Nationaal_, you can't miss it."

"Forrest National?" this sounded familiar to Max, "I've read about that."

"You know where to find it?" Snake asked her, after which she nodded, "Then we know where to go."

Everyone turns away from the man, though Jason doesn't keep his eyes of him just yet, looking at him threateningly.

"Oh, and you erotic woman!" the man didn't seem to notice how Jason was looking at him, "If you want, you can write me to _Koekoekstraat_70, in Melle. But it is not for me, it's for..."

At that moment, Jason had had it with this man. He punched the man into a nearby wall, after which he took out his machete.

"No Jase, don't." Ginger stopped him, "Let this be a lesson for him. If he hasn't learned it next time we meet him, then kill him."

Jason seemed to think about it, then decided to go with it. He put back his machete and followed the rest.


	17. Chapter 17

Sprout House

The site in question appeared old. Too old to suggest any recent activity. For that matter, too small to think that it could possibly be any place to harbor, built, or otherwisely keep any giant robot. Realizing that much, the group was angry.

"This is just unbelievable!" Al shouted, "Did we waste all of our time looking for this old dumb?! I can't believe it."

"Unless that man didn't tell us the whole truth." Snake reasoned, "He wasn't exactly the brightest person I've ever met, and I've met two presidents."

"And this place reeks!" Ginger almost had a hard time breathing when saying this, "Ugh... I always fucking hated sprouts!"

"Then again, don't you remember what Struyss said?" Max reminded everyone, "He said that people have been seen going to this House, but that doesn't mean that they actually went IN the House."

"You thinkin' this house is just a red herring?" Snake asked her.

"I'm not sure. It makes sense." Max replied.

"So if people only pass through here, then where exactly do they go?" Al wondered.

Ginger suddenly got tapped on her shoulder. She turned to talk to Jason: "What is it, Jase?"

Jason pointed to footprints that were made in the dirt. Since Jason pointed this out, everyone looked.

"They're not mine." Ginger said, "And if Jase points them out, they're not his either."

"Or mine." Al added.

"So if these prints aren't ours..." Snake reasoned.

"Then they must belong to those disappearing people." Max decided "So all we must do is follow them and see where we end up."

"Then what the fuck are we waiting for?" Ginger wondered, "I'd be glad to get out of this stench!"

The footprints lead them to an entrance to an underground tunnel. Unfortunately, in here there were only two could see anything: Max and Al, when the latter had changed into Spawn. Ginger, however, could smell an exit, or could smell an air that didn't contain any scent of sprouts, so she could find her way out, guiding her friend Jason out. The other three... if they weren't already pissed that they hadn't found their final destination, they would not have acted towards each other the way they were at the time.

"I wish they would have given me some night-vision goggles." Snake complained.

"Who needs that?!" Max sounded somewhat arrogant.

"Maybe you don't, but I do." Snake replied.

"You got a problem?" Spawn asked him.

"You seem to have forgotten that we came all the way to that House, only to go somewhere else again." Snake snapped back.

"Who needs that!?" Max complained about Snake's complaining.

"YOU got a problem?" Spawn directed himself to Max.

"Somebody's a little ticked off." Max laughed.

"I'm surprised that you're not." Snake remarked.

"Who needs that?" Max asked in return.

"Since when are you so optimistic?" Snake asked.

"That's not what you said last time." Spawn said to Max.

"Exactly." Snake agreed.

"Somebody's a little ticked off." Max sounded annoyed this time.

"I thought we established that already." Snake reminded her.

"That's not what you said last time." Spawn remarked.

"Because it didn't matter at the time." Snake told him.

"You got a problem?" Spawn suddenly wondered.

"You know, you've said that one too many times by now." Snake suddenly started, "YOU got a problem, maybe?"

Spawn said nothing else after that.

Jason and Ginger heard how their conversation went. But since only Ginger could talk, she said: "And we're supposed to stop some guy from destroying the world with those three. Honestly..."

At the end of the tunnel, there was light. The closer they came to that light, the more they could all see that the tunnel was in fact once used for trains to run through.

"Already thought the whole place was a maze." Snake remarked, "We ended up in the subways."

"No." Max told him, "These tunnels haven't been used in a long time."

Jason disagreed, as he shook his head and pointed to more footprints.

"Maybe not used by trains, but there's been some action here." Spawn agreed.

"Don't tell me we have to go all the way in again!" Snake complained, as the prints pointed back into the tunnel.

"I don't think that'll be necessary." Ginger said, as she pointed to something outside.

Not everybody has sharp senses as either Ginger or Max, or Spawn who could make some kind of binoculars appear on his eyes, but everybody could definitely see something moving, at a distance. But they all had to come outside to have a better view of what it was. Whatever it was, it was far away, but at such a distance, it would have to be a giant in order for them to see it at this distance.

"That... is huge." was all Spawn could say.

"I guess they weren't kidding when we were told about a 'giant' robot." Max remarked.

"No shit." Ginger agreed.

"And where's our own when WE fucking need it?" Snake snarled.

All that the five could do at the time was watch, as the robot ran amok in the small town near Brussels. It didn't do much, aside from stomping it's way through, arriving at a bank, using it's lasers to break it open, as though it were an egg, and use something that looked like a vacuum-cleaner to suck out all of it's money and whatever other valuables it contained. What not many people saw, was that a girl in a pink suit appeared out of nowhere, almost as though she teleported there. In that same way she disappeared again, which somehow caused the robot to stop moving.

The five could see that the robot stopped moving.

"This is our chance." Spawn decided.

He allowed his chains to appear, with which he grabbed hold of the other four, so Spawn himself could fly towards the robot.

"You can fly?" Ginger wondered.

"I can do lots of things." Spawn explained, "But if you mean to ask why I didn't do this before, it's because it drains too much energy from me."

"And what happens when you've drained it all?" Max asked him.

"Fucking hell, that's what happens." Spawn answered.

Once they arrived, however, the robot started moving again. But shortly before it did, they saw something being tossed out of it. That something was that pink-suited girl, whom had apparently teleported herself inside the robot.

"Who's that?" Ginger wondered.

"She almost looks like one of those people that call themselves superheroes." Snake answered.

"Maybe she tried to stop that robot herself." Max reasoned.

"It clearly failed." Spawn remarked.

"I wouldn't say that." Max said, "It stopped moving, didn't it?"

Shortly after she was tossed out, something else flew out, while the robot itself flew in a different direction.

"What is that?" Snake asked.

"Krimson." Max answered, as she could see his face, even at the distance they were at.

"Best not let that fuck get away." Spawn realized, as he sped up to follow him.

The five followed Krimson, causing a sort of airshow, to eye-witnesses at least, the likes of which none of them had ever seen before. Still, despite the five's best efforts, or rather because the best efforts of at least one of them (namely Spawn, who's energy got drained too much for him to continue), Krimson could still escape.

"Damn!" Spawn cursed, as he forcibly landed, and changed back in Al, "Why does that always happen at the worst of times?!"

"At least we know where to look." Max sounded optimistic about this.

"Yeah, and you remember how far away we are from that tunnel now?" Snake asked her, "We can't fly over there to stop him from fixing his robot."

That's when something from Max's pocket started beeping, after which she said: "Maybe not."

"You have a pager?" Al wasn't aware of that.

"Thirteen thought we might need it. So I can tell him where to drop off our own robot." Max explained.

"I always hated those things." Snake hissed, "Pagers, cell-phones,... for our comfort, but they're a pain in the ass to carry."

"I don't know." Max said, "I like this thingy. When this is over, I'll change it's number, so neither Thirteen or anyone else can contact me again, so I can use it all I want to. But if you'll all excuse me, I got a call to make."


	18. Chapter 18

Max left the group to look for a phone. But in doing so, she saw something weird. Everyone in town was in a state of sleepwalking, and all were headed into the same direction. Max wasn't sure of what she saw, but knew that this happening in the town where Krimson was hiding could not be a coincidence. She was about to run back to the group, but then felt a hand on her shoulder. Out of reflex, she would grab the hand and toss the one to whom it belonged over her. But that didn't happen here, as the hand has disappeared. Nobody that she knows of can be either that fast or that quiet. What she did find on her shoulder was a piece of paper. She looked at it and read the following.

"Don't ask, just leave these people alone and make your call. Don't understand? Ask Snake, he will."

It was signed by a Kenny, which was a name that meant nothing to her. She still wondered who could have given her that message, how, and why. But realizing she's wasting time, she runs to a phone, tells Winch where to find her and the others, then returns to the others.

As soon as Max rejoined the others, Snake asked her: "Did you tell them ev...?"

"Yes I did." Max interrupted, "But you guys wouldn't believe what just happened."

"What is it?" Al asked her.

"Everyone in town is sleepwalking." she told them, "I even tried to talk to them, but they didn't listen."

"Can't blame a sleeper for not hearing them." Ginger remarked.

"And Snake, who's Kenny?" she asked him.

Snake looked surprised: "You know about him?"

"Someone left me a note, telling me to leave them alone." she answered, "It even said you'd understand."

Snake sighed: "Of course, now he decides to help."

"Who is?" Al wondered, "What aren't you telling us?"

Knowing what Kenny told him before, Snake didn't think he should tell them this, but now that he's let his presence known, Snake decided to share his experience with them.

Meanwhile, inside Krimson's lair, everyone was working to fix the robot. It didn't matter how puny the girl was that tried to trash it, she had done enough damage for this to take hours to fix. Even with an entire town helping. Someone was watching them do this, which left him undecided as to what to do now. On the one hand, he knew exactly why people were acting the way they were. It's because somehow, his girlfriend's powers got amplified, so she doesn't need to be anywhere near anyone, in order to control their minds. In other words, her powers are being abused to this extend, and seeing how some people are acting, or have these expressions on their faces, he knew that his girlfriend was suffering. On the other hand, if he lets them finish the job, rather than stop them, he wouldn't force Krimson to move away again, which would make it hard for that task-force to find him, and therefor move his girlfriend away from him, again. Then, he realized something else. Something wasn't right about the way the were moving. When nearer to the exit, they seem to be determined to be there, but when more inside the lair, they appeared to hesitate a little. One would say that the further away from the one controlling them, the less powerful it's control is. But if they hesitate when inside the lair, that must mean that his girlfriend isn't anywhere in here. He then knew exactly what to do. He touched one of these sleepwalking people, somehow figured out where they're getting their orders from, then goes there.

While all the work was going on, Krimson was watching a video-screen. On it, he saw Tess, whom he held captive somewhere. She was hooked onto a machine, which appeared to both keep her alive, as well as connected to her brains. Altogether, this must be the machine that amplifies her powers. Krimson liked watching this, being the sadistic man he's always been. Even after his adventure many centuries ago, although it started in the 20th century sixties.

He broke into Barabas' laboratory, hoping to find some invention that he could use for his own benefit. Especially the time-machine was on his mind. And why not, as despite all his most brilliant schemes, all it took were a couple of kids to foil them. But if he were to use this machine, maybe he'll make it a little more difficult for them to stop him. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. The professor had enough inventions to defend himself, was even about ready to destroy his time-machine, but Krimson was lucky to have been inside it just when that happened. That is, he hoped he could travel to somewhere in the 16th century, which worked, but because of the machine's destruction, something went wrong, causing him to be sent in a galaxy far, far away. In this galaxy, where technology was far more advanced than the technology even in the modern era, he found people like himself, accept that they were able to do things no one else ever could. They had the power to make electricity come out of their hands, move things with their mind, or even control other people's minds. This was a power he tried to learn, and it worked. A bit unfortunate for him, he wasn't patient enough. He could learn much more than what he knows now, but he didn't have the patience for it. With the knowledge he gained, he stole a space-ship and set a course back to his home-planet. But given the distance between that galaxy and his own planet, it would take him a while to return, especially since Earth, for as far as the people from this planet are concerned, doesn't exist. With the use of cryogenic stasis, he was able to return to Earth, after some many years. And when he arrived, he heard a lot of things had happened since he left. One of them having to do with the 4400. When he heard there was one who could control people's minds, he decided he could use that one for his own benefit as well. He could do this himself, but he knew that it would drain too much energy from him if he did, so he thought of using this girl's powers instead. So when he kidnapped her, he used his own mind-controlling powers to control her. Unfortunately, she was strong enough to resist it, until he showed her pictures of her dead boyfriend, which got her to relapse into an emotional state that she used to be in years earlier, which gave her little to no reason to fight Krimson's powers.

Remembering all that, it made him smile. What made him lose that smile, however, was when his screen started to show snow. He couldn't understand what was going on. What just happened?

Kenny entered an old house, that had "Merlina" as a sort of billboard, as though this place used to be of some significance in the distant past. Inside, he could feel Tess' presence. He knew she wasn't upstairs, but not on the ground floor either. He did see that there was a secret door in one of the walls, which would make the perfect hide-out. He entered the door, which showed a staircase, leading down. Beside the case, he saw electric wires, which were recently put there. He was on the right track. He went down, only to freeze at the sight of Tess, and the machine she was connected to. He started shaking at the very sight of this. He looked at the electric wires, then decided to tear those things apart.

One of those electric wires was connected to the camera that Krimson used to keep an eye on Tess. Now that he's not receiving anything anymore, he knew something was wrong. He had a red button in his room, which would warn his associates when pressed. Those associates receive a silent alarm, triggering them to go to the old house and investigate what's happening. While they're doing that, Krimson hears some whining outside his room. When he went to see, he saw that these people's minds were no longer under the influence of something. He went utterly mad at that, which lead him to decide to use his own powers after all. With it, people not only worked faster, his robot was fixed ahead of schedule as well.

Meanwhile, Kenny helped Tess get out of the machine. She was unconsious, which was to be expected, as she was kept sedated. He called her name a few times, but she didn't respond. But he also knew that she couldn't be dead. Shortly after, a group of men arrived in the hidden room. Kenny looked at them, then he put down his girlfriend, so he could face them, smiling. One of them shouted something in Dutch, which Kenny didn't understand.

"You Flemish never heard of saying 'freeze'?" Kenny joked.

That same man shrugged, then said: "Do not move, or we will shoot!"

Kenny laughed: "Try me."

Infuriated by his challenge, all the men shot him.


	19. Chapter 19

May 9th, 2010, 01:20

The five were waiting, all through the night, while staying in the ghost town, that was made the day before.

"Is it me, or is Jupiter shining brighter?" Max suddenly wondered.

"What?" Al asked.

"Look at that star." Max pointed to him.

Everyone looks up to where Max pointed. There was indeed one star that appeared to be brighter than all the others, but that didn't impress anybody.

"So what?" Ginger said, "In Crystal Lake, all stars seem brighter."

"I'm serious." Max said.

"The only thing I'm serious about is what Kenny is doing." Snake said, "If he's done saving his girl, couldn't he at least tell us?"

"Maybe he hasn't saved her at all." Al replied, looking at and suddenly pointing at something in the sky.

Krimson's robot was fixed, and was about to bring more devastation. It started walking over the houses of the ghost town, as the streets were too small for it to walk through them. The robot appeared to be walking towards a certain house, where it raised it's foot and crushed it.

"What the..." Max whispered.

"So our mystery friend has failed." Al said.

"But Winch hasn't." Ginger remarked, judging from a sound she heard, "I can hear helicopters coming this way. They sound very screechy, as if they're carrying a heavy load.

"I can see what that is." Max said.

Everyone else would have just said it's a bunch of in the sky, but Max who had sharper vision could see that it was really a group of helicopters carrying their giant robot.

"A helicopter cockpit for it's head." Max sighed, "They were really desperate."

"Those lights are our robot?" Snake asked.

"That's a fucking perfect timing." Ginger remarked.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Al started, as he changed into Spawn and carried the other four to the robot.

On their way to the robot, Max hadn't kept her eyes off Jupiter. It didn't appear to shine much brighter anymore. Rather, it started to lose it's brightness. Max wasn't much of a real astronomer, so she didn't know whether she should be worried about Jupiter's current state or not.

Spawn dropped Snake off in one of the robot's shoulders, which was a tank. The other three were dropped of in it's head. While Spawn remained outside to tell the pilots to put it down, and afterwards cutting the wires off, the other four were getting themselves ready.

In the head, Jason was put into the exoskeleton, which was to control the robot. Once he got it on, he moved his arm, and outside everyone could see it's arm move.

"Nice. That works." Max remarked.

"Don't fucking start." Ginger said, "Does this look like it'll hold at all?"

"Right now, we've got no choice." everyone heard Snake talk, but he wasn't inside the head.

"Snake?" Max asked him.

"This thing has a radio-contact." Snake explained, "I just found a head-set."

Max then saw a bag that had 'Max' painted on it, along with a walkie-talkie: "I guess that's for me."

Ginger then looked at her own seat. She saw all the monitors, and other machines, of which she wasn't sure what they were, but she turned on all the screens and pressed all the buttons on the other machines, and then she saw statistics, names and other things, which would have her interpret the state of the robot.

"Ugh... couldn't someone else do this?" she whined.

"Unfortunately not." Snake answered.

"I'm here." Spawn sounded, "Jason, take us to that thing!"

Jason did as he was told. He moved his legs, causing the robot to walk towards Krimson's robot.

Given that the one robot was controlled by five people, it's fair to call it the Fivebot, and since the other is controlled by Krimson, it's best to call it the Krimtron. Once well within range, the Fivebot used it's shoulder tanks to shoot the Krimtron. It didn't do much damage, but it did catch it's attention. Likely, Krimson was surprised to see this other robot, but the Krimtron doesn't show it. It shot one of it's lasers to attack Fivebot.

"Jason, step away!" Ginger warned him.

Jason, who was used to not feel much of any pain when he's attacked, didn't think it would have mattered if that laser got him, but it wasn't Jason himself that was attacked. He needed Ginger to help him remember that much. This way, he didn't act fast enough, and the laser had partly damaged Fivebot's arm.

"Fuck!" Ginger exclaimed.

"Now I know where to aim my cannon next." Snake remarked.

Max, meanwhile, was already on her way to fix the arm.

As Jason suddenly realized that the robot he's controlling is more fragile than he is himself, Fivebot's demeanor changed. Rather than letting it's shoulder-tanks do most of the work, it raised it's fists, at the best of it's capacities, to attack the Krimtron. And so the fight went on for some time. After multiple attempts, Snake and Spawn finally managed to destroy Krimtron's lasers, which made it a little more vulnerable than it was only seconds ago. At that point, the Krimtron made one swift move with it's arm, which twisted the Fivebot's head. Max arrived at the neck just in time to try and fix it, but she realized soon enough that she can't do this alone.

Max decided to call for help: "Everybody, I need..."

She couldn't finish her sentence, as she suddenly saw something else. Or rather, she didn't see something else. More appropriately, there where Jupiter had to be, there was nothing anymore.

"Yes, Max, what do you need?" Snake asked her, but received no reply, "Max?!"

Still wondering what happened to Jupiter, she saw it's light returning, except that it wasn't just a star in the sky this time, but something a thousand times brighter. So bright, it blinded her. It also surprised everyone else, as to them it was as though the sun decided to swing by in the middle of the night.

"What the fu..." Snake started.

"What's going on up there?" Ginger asked.

If Krimson was surprised to see this, he didn't show, as the Krimtron rammed itself into the Fivebot, causing it to fly away from where it stood at the time. Wherever it was flying off to, the Krimtron followed it.

In the centre of Brussels, many people were awakened by the sudden brightness in the middle of the night. When looking at their watches, they saw that it was past 2am, which is too soon for the sun to be up. This was something so strange, it took a giant robot that crashed into the Saint-Michaels Cathedral to help them wake out of that trance.

Inside the giant robot, that was the Fivebot, everyone tried to recover from what just happened. Snake looked at the remains of what they just crashed into, and said: "At least it's one church less in the world."

"Guys, this robot's too heavily damaged now, I can't fix it in time." Max warned them.

"Alright, that's it!" Spawn said over the radio, after which everyone could feel the robot shaking.

Whatever was going on wasn't clear, until everyone saw how the Fivebot's head got turned back in it's place, and how everything started to show the same colors as Spawn's suit.

"Oh fuck!" Ginger exclaimed as she saw the Krimtron, which was about to crash itself into the Fivebot. Or would Spawnbot be a better way to call it?

The Spawnbot was able to roll away, so the Krimtron missed him. After this, the battle went more smoothly. As Spawn had complete control over the robot, it could move faster, had more agility, and could more easily dodge attacks.

"And you didn't think you could do this before?" Ginger complained.

"No." Spawn replied.

"That was succinct." Snake remarked.

This fight lasted for some time as well. But after some time, Spawn started to feel it draining it's energy, so he decided to do something quite desperate. The Spawnbot jumped the Krimtron, so powerfully that they both flew away from where they stood at the time. As they were flying, the Spawnbot slowly turned back into the Fivebot. And after some time, they both crash-landed somewhere near a country-side town, which not only destroyed both robots, but also caused it's pilots to spread away from each other.


	20. Chapter 20

Ginger didn't know what she was feeling when she woke up. On the one hand, she felt as though she was floating, on the the other, she had the impression that there was something surrounding her, and entering her body through her nose. It took a while before she realized she was in water. That's when she opened her eyes, started to have difficulty to breath and tried to go up. She saw something moving above her, something that looked like black dots, moving as though they were writing something on the water. Ginger didn't know what they were, but she could tell that they were on the surface, which gave her an idea of how close she is, which helped her to go faster, until she reached the surface and inhaled deeply.

Jason, who was already looking for her, saw her coming out, after which he went into the river and helped her get out. Once out, the two of them rejoined with Max and Snake.

"Thought we lost you there." Snake said.

"Yeah." Ginger replied, "Luckily those rinkeling winkeling water-things there kept me oriented."

"Those what?" Snake asked her.

Before she could answer, Jason had already wrapped his arms around her, showing just how much afraid he was that he'd have lost her.

"This is still a disturbing sight, I tell ya." Max said.

Once Jason let go of her, Ginger asked them: "So where's Al?"

"He's resting." Max answered, "He drained too much... necroplasm, as he calls it, so he needs to recharge."

"That means there is one man less." a voice said, which neither one of them knew.

They turned to look at who just spoke, and recognized him as Krimson.

"Both our robots are broken." Krimson said, as he started to charge electricity in his hands, "But I do not need it for you four."

Snake raised his gun and replied: "We'll see about that."

He shoots, but it took just one move of Krimson's hand to change the bullet's trajectory. Nobody knew what it was that they were seeing, but Jason didn't show much of any fear. He took out his machete to attack Krimson, but the latter took something out of his pocket to fight that too. He took out something that looked like a flashlight, but whatever light it was that came out, was not only red, it also appeared to be of the same length as a sword, and very hot, as it managed to melt Jason's machete into two pieces. No, it didn't break, it melted. Max then tried to attack him with her feline abilities, but Krimson could use his telekinetic abilities to push her away, which he also did with Jason, as well as Snake and Ginger when they tried to attack.

Once all four of them were down, Snake started: "You... coward!"

"What did you say?" Krimson heard him, "You dare to call me a coward?"

"You wouldn't call me that yourself if you didn't have those powers." Snake replied.

That's when Krimson raised Snake off the ground, again with his telekinetic powers, except that it looked as though he was held up by his neck, as Snake was having trouble breathing. In a similar situation, Snake would have punched or kicked the man that's trying to strangle him, but this man was too far away for him to do anything to. The others tried to help, but Krimson used his powers to keep them on the floor.

"Don't be impatient." he told them, "You'll be next soon."

"Jesus walking into a hotel once." another voice spoke.

Krimson turned to see who was talking. He didn't know the man he was seeing, but Snake recognized him: "Kenny?"

"He gave the innkeeper three nails and asked him: 'will you put me up for the night?' " the man, Kenny, finished.

"What?" Krimson couldn't understand.

Kenny looked surprised, although he didn't appear to really be exactly that: "It's what a friend of mine told me, back when I was..."

Krimson didn't listen. That light-sword he used earlier, he threw it towards Kenny, which got him right in his heart. Kenny appeared to be in pain, for a brief moment. After that, he pressed the button on the sword, causing it's light to disappear. When that happened, everyone could see the wound it caused, but could also see how it healed, leaving no mark of penetration at all.

"Nice toy." Kenny said, "Didn't I see this in some movie or other?"

He shrugged, after which he broke the sword into pieces, using his bare hands alone. They turned bloody after that, but that too healed.

Seeing this, Krimson let go of Snake and turned completely to Kenny: "What are you?"

"Ever knew that all the ancient religions think of the crow as a deity?" Kenny answered, "A devourer? A hunter? A..."

Krimson couldn't hear much more of this. He used his electricity on Kenny. The latter held out his hand, which caught most of the blast. It looked black at first, but it healed quickly.

"It is the power of that crow that's been given to me." Kenny continued, uninterrupted, "Ironically, I wouldn't have had it if it wasn't for you..."

Krimson tried his telekinesis, but that too got deflected, by just one sway of Kenny's hand. There was no way of stopping him.

"You... who took my girlfriend away..." Kenny continued, "And endangered our..."

That's when Krimson used the full blast of his telekinesis with both of his hands, so Kenny couldn't deflect it even if he wanted to. Kenny flew backwards, hitting a pole, hard enough for everybody to hear his back break. This was a moment where the others saw their opening to attack Krimson. They used all their might on him, while he was still confused. Unfortunately, Krimson quickly recovered from all that, and had to use a combination of both his electricity and his telekinesis to throw everyone away. At that moment, where he had all four of them in his grip, he was about ready to kill them all off, but he didn't count on someone else kicking his legs. When that happened, Krimson fell down, as did the other ones, exhausted from what just happened.

"That... hurts." Kenny said, while standing over Krimson, who had apparently forgotten that this man could heal from every wound. Earlier, even, Kenny was shot by a group of men, but not one bullet stopped him from fighting back.

Krimson raised his hands to attack Kenny, but the latter was too fast for the former. The two broke out into a fight, in which the one could try and damage the other, but only one of them could heal from anything at all.

After some time, Krimson was finally taken down, with almost every part of his body covered in blood. Despite that, he still found the strength to try and get up.

After mumbling something in his own language, Krimson said: "I will have my revenge on you... you can believe t..."

He couldn't say anything anymore, as something got him in his back. He turned to look, and saw Jason, using whatever was left of his machete on him. Krimson thought of using something from his hands again, but Ginger stepped on both of his hands.

"Don't even think about it!" she exclaimed.

"Alright, we got him." Max sounded cheerful, as she was about to go to Krimson herself."

"No." Snake stopped her, "Let him take care of it."

Snake pointed to Kenny, who approached the now powerless Krimson: "How does it feel now? To be in the position that so many have been in, thanks to you? Weak, powerless, hopeless. But don't worry, unlike you, I'm not without mercy. I will not let you suffer anymore."

Krimson, as anyone else, didn't know what he was hearing: "Th... Thank you... very much."

"Nor will I let you have anyone else suffer." Kenny added.

Krimson needed just one second to realize what was about to happen, but within that same second, Kenny had already grabbed Krimson's head and broke his neck.

"That takes care of him." Ginger said.

"Too bad Al wasn't here to see this." Max moaned.

"If he was, Krimson would have used his powers on him as well." Snake told her, "And if not, he would've killed him before Kenny would've arrived."

"Ah, a soldiers honor." Max realized, "Don't meddle into affairs that don't concern you."

"Right." Snake replied.

Ginger meanwhile turned to Kenny: "So you're that Kenn..."

But he was already gone. Vanished into thin air.

"He's gone? How does he do that?" Max wondered.

"Yeah, he does that sometimes." Snake replied.

Kenny returned to that town where Tess was kept captive. When he re-entered the town, he noticed it was called Ravenburg. A fitting name, given the circumstances. In any case, when he saved his girlfriend, he thought of allowing her to rest in one of the upstairs bedrooms. Unfortunately, Krimson's robot came to that house and destroyed it. So Kenny was forced to move her into another place. The best place he could find was an old bar, run by an old man. He can remember the man shouting something that sounded like "ah-ker-chee-eh-ah-ker-chee-eh" when his entering woke him up.

When he returned to the bar, he met with the old man again, who immediately asked him: "You're back. Do you know what's going on? Why does the sun shine when it is night?"

"I don't know." Kenny replied, "Where is she?"

"She's still upstairs, but..." the old man hesitated, "... when she woke up, she started to shout and break everything in the room. I had to er... bind her to the bed to calm her down."

"I was afraid that'll happen." Kenny replied, as he quickly went upstairs.

The old man, meanwhile, looked up in the sky, still puzzled about this phenomenon. In his own language, he decided: "I'll probably read about this in 'De Ravenburgse Post' tomorrow. I mean today... this is very confusing. Ah-ker-chee-eh."

Kenny entered her room, where he could hear Tess' muffled screams and see her struggling, but he wasn't sure whether she was trying to get loose or working out her anger, grieve, or something else. In any case, all he needed to do was sit next to her in bed and hold her face in both of his hands. She still screaming, but that faded away as soon as she realized who was with her. Once she was her usual self again, Kenny took off the cloth that had her gagged.

"... Ken... Kenny?" Tess breathed out.

Her first thought was to hold him, but her hands were still tied. Kenny helped her to get loose from those, which made sure that nobody could stop them from holding one another.

After some tears and some time, Tess finally said: "They told me you're dead. They told me you had an accident."

Kenny wasn't prepared for that bit, but didn't think there was any way in which he can say anything to make this seem less painful. He let go of her, and said: "Tess, I know you're not gonna like this, but..."

"But what?" Tess was afraid of what he was about to say.

"I..." Kenny had a hard time saying this himself, "I'm not supposed to be here."

"What do you mean?" Tess couldn't understand, "This room?"

"Not this room." Kenny answered, "Not this city, not this country, not this world,... what I'm trying to say is... I really don't want to go, but... I just have to."

This made Tess about as unhappy as she was some time ago: "No... No! You can't just leave me! I don't want to be alone!"

"You won't be." Kenny assured her, as he lay his hand on her belly and rubbed it nicely, "He'll be with you."

Tess looked down on her belly, then back at Kenny: "You... you knew?"

"Not before my accident." Kenny told her, "And believe me, if I could, I would stay for him. But I don't have a choice."

Tess started to look sad, but Kenny held her face again, allowing her to look into his eyes. She saw something in them, that helped her see his sincerity. If he wanted to leave her, he wouldn't have come to her to say so, she realized. Still, she had one last request for him.

"Can..." she hesitated, "...Will you stay with me, until I'm home?"

"Yes." Kenny answered, "That I can still do."

From that moment on, they held each other again. If the world were to end just then, it would still not be enough to bring those two apart.


	21. Chapter 21

Camp Crystal Lake, New Jersey, May 11, 2010

Jason and Ginger were dropped off at their home. At this time, it should've been night, but something with planetary orbits does not allow it to be as much. Still, neither one of them appeared to mind as much.

"It'll be a while before we can spend some time under the moonlight again, Jase." she said, "I guess people will now be talking about 'in the light of Lucifer'."

Jason looked up at the sound of that name, as he never heard of it before.

"It's what they're calling that new sun." Ginger explained him, "You didn't hear?"

Jason shook his head, so Ginger was about to explain, but that's when they heard a hustle in the bushes. Ginger and Jason looked at each other, nodded, then spread away to catch whatever it was that's in the bushes.

New York City

Spawn was back in his alleys, no matter how much he disliked the area. From the top of a building, he could see how people were still working on rebuilding New York, when it's past midnight, in the new light from the new sun. He also saw preachers on virtually every corner of the streets, urging people to change their ways, now that 'Lucifer' has risen. If people only knew the truth about what's really awaiting them after death, they would all change their ways. Spawn himself had to find out the hard way, which almost makes him pity the ones he's seeing. At best, for the moment, he can keep the construction-workers he sees from dying on the job.

Denver, Colorado

Below surface, in a parking garage, Thirteen and Largo could be found in the company of Snake and Max. Down there, Largo and Thirteen took Snake and Max's files and tore them apart. With this, they made it official that whatever information they have on the two, will not be leaked out. Which is more or less the reason that they were there in the first place. As the two of them are being sought after, it's best for them to be left somewhere at random, where they wouldn't be linked with Largo, or any of his associates. For that, Denver appeared to be the best place, as Neither Largo or Thirteen even had to be there.

"You stuck to your end of the bargain, so did we." Largo added.

"I bet. Got a smoke?" Snake wanted to ask that for a long time.

"Free for five seconds and already you want to break the law?" Thirteen was surprised to hear him.

Snake didn't say anything. With that said, Largo gave Max what looked like a kid's I.D. Max looked at it, and read out loud: "Max Reed?"

"Thought you could use something like that." Largo explained, "It belonged to a kid who died around your age."

"So I am dead now?" Max asked him.

"No, it's just easier to use a dead person's identity than to make up one." Largo added.

Thirteen then got his hand inside one of his own pockets: "We even got one for you, Sna..."

"Save it." Snake interrupted him, after which he turned to leave.

"Suit yourself." Thirteen called after him.

Max, realizing she doesn't have any more business there, she decided to follow Snake.

"And I thought working with those other three would be hard." Thirteen told Largo.

Largo chuckled: "I guess. In any case, Tracy has his plans, and nobody is abusing it's power."

"Not a bad day, then." Thirteen remarked.

Once Max and Snake were close to the exit, Max stopped Snake: "If we have to leave, we'd best do it separately."

"So I go and you wait." Snake hissed, "What did you stop me for?"

Max, who got used to his short temper by then, just smiled: "So what are you going to do?"

Snake sighed, while turning his head away from her: "When that Winch's people found me before the cops did, back in Cleveland, I was with two more people. I'm gonna find them."

"Old friends?" Max asked.

"If friends leave you behind, then yes." Snake snarled.

Max understood then: "Well, first thing I'm gonna do is find another dead kid and take his or her name, instead of what that guy just gave me."

"Good for you." Snake hissed, while still not looking at her.

"So..." Max started, "... I'll see you around, Snake."

"Name's Plissken." Snake told her, before he left the area.

Once outside, he realized he'd have to do a much better job at hiding his face, now that the cover of darkness doesn't work in his advantage anymore. At best, he could sneak into smaller alleys and find his way out of town from there.

For Max, her only problem was being seen. A young girl on her own sticks out a little too much. Especially for those few people who'd dare to harm kids, even during the new daytime. Whoever tried, had no idea of they were dealing with, nor would they ever be able to tell anyone. Because, if you, as a grown man, were beaten up by a little girl, no matter what the circumstances, that's one thing you don't want others to know.

**THE END**


End file.
